Lab Rats: Behaving Badly (Sequel to Saving Sloane)
by leiabieber
Summary: Sloane & the Davenports are back. In the sequel to Saving Sloane, Bree's desire to be a bad girl still lies in the pit of her stomach. As Sloane gains a new friend and her relationship with Chase grows, Bree can't help feeling more distant from her. Wanting to make some of her own new friends and make Sloane jealous along the way, she finds herself torn between right and wrong.
1. Chapter 1

"Perfect!" Davenport says. Sloane just finished using the mission simulator by herself, and defeated all four of her opponents. This was her final piece of training to successfully finish before joining Adam, Bree and Chase on missions. Sloane rips off her simulator glasses with a smile on her face before tossing them to Leo without looking. Chase picks her up off the platform and spins her around in a hug.

"Congrats, Sloane!" Bree says and smiles.

"Thanks, _Breebie_!" Sloane answers and smiles back, with her arms still around Chase. They've been dating for four months now.

"Alright, guys," Mr. Davenport says, "Head upstairs and finish getting ready for school. Sloane still has to change."

"You got it, Big D," Adam says and leads the way.

They arrive at school within the next twenty minutes. "I'll see you in P.E." Sloane says to Chase after pecking him on the cheek and heading to English.

When she arrives, there's someone sitting at her desk (Miley Cyrus). She has long auburn hair and blue eyes. She's wearing ripped black skinny jeans and white tank top, which you can clearly see her black lace bra through. Her tall black combat boots are rested on the desk.

"You're in my seat," Sloane says with a bit of attitude in her voice.

The girl gives Sloane a once over then takes her feet off the top of the desk. She smirks, "My bad." She stands and moves to the desk to the left of Sloane's. "My name's Kitana by the way."

"Sloane," she retaliates, slightly confused to why _Kitana's_ talking to her.

Darian, the girl who usually sits next to Sloane, walks up. "Excuse me," she smiles at Kitana, "That's my seat."

She shrugs, "And now it's mine."

Darian stands there, not saying anything. Kitana waves a hand at her, and Darian decides to just walk away. Sloane wonders why Kitana let her have her seat, and not Darian. Maybe it had something to do with Darian's too-sweet voice and bright clothing.

"Alright class," Mr. Fitz says after the bell rings. "Everyone quiet down. We have a new student today with us," he gestures to Kitana. "Her name is Kitana."

"Kitana," she says. He pronounced it kee-tawn-uh as opposed to kuh-tawn-uh.

"Right. Kitana," he tries again and gets it right this time. Kitana nods at him.

"Today we're going to start reading _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_," he says as he sits on the edge of his desk.

Kitana lets out a long and loud groan. Sloane holds back from laughing with a hand covering her mouth.

Mr. Fitz looks like he doesn't know what to do at first. "Is there a problem, Kitana?"

"It's just…" she doesn't hesitate to answer, "I'm tired of reading stuff like that. Can't we pick what we want to read ourselves?"

"The point of reading the books I assign are to get the education value out of them."

"And what's that?" Kitana scoffs.

"Reading classics shows us how literature has changed over time. We can learn what they did, what they wore, and how they acted back to when the story is set."

"And why's _that_ important? We obviously don't dress and talk like they did back then, so what's the relevance?"

"The relevance is that this is school, where you're exposed to new things," he stands and walks towards Kitana's desk. "I'm sure you'll take something away from this by the time you're done reading it." He sets a copy of the book on her desk. "Whether that's something useful to you, or a bad grade, I don't know. It's all up to you."

Kitana's almost glaring at him.

"Why don't you get us started?"

At the end of the day, Sloane invites Kitana to come over.

"Who's this?" Bree forces a smile once she meets up with them outside.

"Kitana," Sloane smiles. "She's awesome."

Kitana shakes her head, "I just hate English."

Bree makes a questioning face.

"During class she flipped on Mr. Fitz about reading _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_. Mr. Fitz was kind of a smartass about it, but it was hilarious." Sloane turns her head to Kitana, "And I totally agree with _you_ about the whole thing," she laughs. "I still think reading old books is pointless."

"Same. I almost fell asleep reading the first page," she laughs.

"Sounds funny," Bree says. "I'm Bree by the way."

Kitana nods her head, "You look like a Bree."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing."

"I live with Bree and her family," Sloane explains.

_That's how she introduces me? _Bree thinks, _Not as her best friend or something?_

"Um _why_?" Kitana asks.

Sloane looks at Bree then back to Kitana, "Their parents have guardianship of me."

"Oh, so you're like family."

"Not really…I'm dating one of them," Sloane forces a laugh.

"Oh, alright," Kitana says but thinks the whole thing sounds kind of weird.

"And here he comes now," Sloane says looking past Kitana. She's a little worried Kitana's going to judge him, thinking he's too nerdy or something.

Chase catches up and puts his arm over Sloane's shoulders.

"This is Chase," Sloane says then looks at him. "This is Kitana. She's coming over."

"What?" Bree says. "Did you ask Mr. Davenport?"

"You think he'll mind?" Sloane questions.

"I'm sure it will be fine," Chase narrows his eyebrows at Bree.

Once Adam and Leo find them, they walk home.

Tasha's in the kitchen when they get there.

"Hey, Tasha," Sloane says. "This is my friend, Kitana."

"Oh, hello. It's very nice to meet you," she says as Sloane and Kitana sit down at the island. "I was just making a snack for you guys." Chase takes the last seat next to Kitana, leaving no room for Bree. Leo and Adam are already starting up the PS4.

"You too," Kitana says.

"What did you make?" Chase asks. Bree awkwardly stands next to him.

"Just some trail mix," she sets the bowl in front of them. "Help yourselves. I'll be in the other room if you need anything.

"Sweet. Thanks Tasha."

"You're welcome sweetie," she says over her shoulder before leaving the room.

"So what do you guys want to do?" Sloane asks.

"Homework," Chase says almost immediately.

Kitana gives him a look of disbelief.

"We should, guys," Bree says. "I have a ton."

"Fine," Sloane laughs rudely like how she did the first time Bree told her she thought Chase liked Sloane. "You guys do that," she puts a pretzel in her mouth.

Kitana looks at Sloane, "You want to prank call people?"

"Yes!" she answers.

"I've never done that," Chase says. "Let's do it."

"Are you joking?" Bree says annoyed. She has no interest in _prank calling_ people.

"If you don't want to do it then don't," Kitana snaps.

"Seriously," Sloane says as she pulls her phone out of her back pocket.

Bree can't believe either of them. Kitana being rude in _her_ house, and Sloane being rude to her period.

"_Chase," _Bree says quietly through her teeth.

Chase looks at her, "What?"

Bree gives him a look, hoping he'll take her side.

"_What_?" He repeats.

Bree gives up and walks away extremely annoyed. She sits down on the couch next to Leo and Adam, but she couldn't be more annoyed over there either. She's between Adam and Leo laughing and fighting over the game, and the three musketeers over there laughing and using random accents over the phone. _It's really not that funny,_ she thinks to herself.

After about twenty minutes of sitting around in agony, she pulls out some homework from her backpack and tries to get working on it. With all of the noise, she can't concentrate at all. She slaps the book after a few minutes, "Can you all quiet down?!" She shouts, accidentally using her vocal manipulation.

Chase, Kitana and Sloane look over at her.

"How'd you do that?" Kitana asks after Sloane abruptly hangs up on one of their victims.

"What are you talking about?" Adam laughs. "That was me!" He yells the last part, trying to sound like how Bree did before. Bree can't help but laugh at him.

"Right," Kitana says. Her phone vibrates on the island and she opens the text. "It's from my mom. She's here to pick me up." She stands and grabs her backpack.

"Already? You just got here," Sloane says. A smile creeps up on Bree's face.

"I know, sorry. I'll see you tomorrow at school," she heads for the door in a rush.

"See you tomorrow," Sloane says with disappointment in her voice.

Bree tosses the textbook off her lap and onto the couch, standing up. "Alright, let's do something fun now!" She smiles.

"Not now, Bree," Chase stands up from the island chair. "Sloane and I need some alone time."

Bree looks away as her smile fades, "Ew."

"Later, okay?" Sloane smiles at her as she and Chase walk upstairs to Sloane's room,

Bree doesn't reply, just sits down heavily on the couch, left alone with Adam and Leo who are both of course too tied up in the game. She feels left out and alone, twice in one day.


	2. Chapter 2

On Wednesday morning, Bree finds Sloane already eating breakfast at the island.

"Hey, Sloaney," she sits down next to her.

"Hey," Sloane answers.

"Do you want to go see a movie after school?" Bree asks hopefully.

"Mm…I can't."

"Why not?" Bree asks as she pours some Captain Crunch into a bowl.

"Kitana and I are going to the mall and taking free samples from the food court," she takes a spoonful of her cereal.

"Okay…what about after that?"

"We're going to do karaoke at the library."

"There is no karaoke at the library…"

Sloane laughs again, "Yeah, that's the point, Bree."

"Whatever."

"Are you mad?" asks Sloane.

"Why would I be mad?" Bree sighs.

"You tell me."

"I'm not mad," Bree says agitated.

"Okay," Sloane retreats. "You're not mad."

In Bree's fifth period Trigonometry, Mrs. Bailey decides to rearrange the seating. Bree gets moved from the front row to the middle of the third row. Megan Ryleigh (Taylor Momsen), probably the most known bad girl at Mission Creek, gets seated next to her. Bree's surprised none of teachers say anything to her about the very short black dress she's wearing today. Even her black heels look high enough for a teacher to say something.

Bree herself sure looks a lot different from Megan, with her pink top, skinny jeans and yellow doc martens.

"Hi," Bree whispers to her.

Megan looks at Bree with a disapproving look. "Hi."

"I'm Bree."

Megan looks at Bree disapprovingly _again _in the corner of her eye and doesn't answer.

Bree looks away and quietly sighs, feeling slightly embarrassed.

Abby Walsh is now making her way towards Bree's desk to take the seat behind her, and Bree decides to make something out of it. At the last second, Bree puts her foot out so Abby trips and falls on her face. Everyone immediately looks over.

"Oops," Bree says sarcastically. She said it loud enough for everyone to hear her. Immediately Bree feels bad considering Abby did absolutely nothing to deserve that.

"Bree Davenport!" Mrs. Bailey shrieks. "I'm so surprised at you! Go to the principal's office now!"

Bree doesn't say anything, just picks up her bag and heads for the door. Before leaving, she makes eye contact with Megan, exactly what she was hoping for. Bree smiles and Megan smiles right back at her before she closes the door.

Bree walks to the principal's office with satisfaction. Any guilt she had about tripping Abby is completely gone. When she enters the office, Perry isn't even there, so she just ends up sitting in the room with the secretary until the period is over.

"You can go on to lunch," she tells Bree simply.

"Thanks," Bree says and grabs her backpack off the chair next to her. On the way to the cafeteria, she sees Abby Walsh, who glares at her. Bree ignores it and continues walking. Sloane and Chase are already there from their study hall together.

"Hey guys," she's about to take a seat next to Sloane.

"Oh, would you mind sitting next to Chase or one over? Kitana's going to sit with us." Sloane says.

Bree breathes out, "How's one_ table _over?" She moves to the table adjacent and sits down, tossing her backpack in another chair.

"_Bree_," she faintly hears Sloane say over all the noise in the room.

Bree doesn't even look over to the other table.

Kitana walks over to their regular table and sits down next to Sloane. "How come Bree's sitting over there all alone?"

"I think she's mad because I just asked her to not sit directly next to me so you could…" Sloane says.

"Or maybe it's because you've barely paid attention to her for the past three days and this was the last straw," Chase says carefully, catching Sloane off guard.

"What?"

Chase stands and picks up his lunch tray. "I'm going to go sit with her…"

"Are you picking her over me?"

"Babe, no," he says quietly while looking down at her. "She's my sister, and she's sitting all alone. You've got Kitana here to sit with you."

After Sloane doesn't say anything and just looks away from him in annoyance, he joins Bree at the other table.

"Hey sis," he says.

"Why aren't you sitting with _them_?" Bree asks and looks over to Sloane and Kitana's backs. Leo and Adam are now sitting down at their table.

Chase takes a bite and shrugs. "I'm not going to let you sit alone."

Bree forces a small smile, "Thanks, Chase.Can I tell you something?"

"Course."

"I wish that girl never came to this fricken school in the first place."

"Kitana? This is only her third day."

"And she's already stolen my best friend!"

"Sloane's just excited to have another friend around that she doesn't see 24/7."

"_No_, she's excited because Kitana's a bad girl, exactly what she's always _claimed_ she doesn't want me to be."

"What are you on about? You've never mentioned anything like this to me."

Bree looks away from Chase and sees Megan and that guy she's always hanging around with walk into the room. Megan and the boy are laughing, but she notices Chase then Bree.

"Megan!" Bree calls, causing both Megan's friend and Chase to snap their heads up. "Come sit with us."

Megan gives Bree a weird look and keeps walking to get food.

"You know that girl?!" Chase says almost immediately.

"No, but I'm going to."

"No, you're not," Chase scoffs.

"_Yes_, I am."

"That girl is bad news, Bree—in all honesty."

"You don't know anything, Chase."

"I know that she's one of the worst kids in school."

"And you're one of the nerdiest," Bree stands, "Get off my back."

"Most nerdy would be the correct usage..."

Bree ignores him and walks over to Megan and her friend.

"Hey guys," she acts like she's friends with them.

"Why are you all over me?" Megan says but not in a particularly mean way.

"Who's this?" her friend asks as he gives Bree a once over and likes what he sees.

"What's your name again?"

Bree smiles, "Bree."

"There you have it," Megan's about to walk away.

"Wait," Bree stops her.

"_What _do you want?"

"To be your friend?" Bree says a bit harshly.

Megan chuckles, "I know who you are, Bree Davenport. Your billionaire daddy gives you everything you could possibly ask for and your life is as easy as a walk in the park."

Bree's stunned. She shakes her head, "You're wrong."

Megan's friend gets in her face. "Then prove it," he whispers; his green eyes staring into her hazel ones. And with that, Megan and the nameless boy leave the cafeteria without another word.


	3. Chapter 3

Wednesday after school, while Sloane is fooling around with Kitana, Bree's going to the mall by herself.

Her first stop is Journeys, were she buys a new pair of doc martens, shiny and _black_. She also buys a pair of all black converse, the out-sole, the laces, everything is black. Afterwards, she goes to random stores—whatever catches her eye. After buying a bunch of new clothes, her last stop is Macy's to get some new makeup from MAC.

Accomplishing all that in just over an hour, she's ready to get out of there. She's been lucky enough so far not to run into Kitana and Sloane. If she actually _sees_ them together, it'd make her way madder than just the mere thought of them hanging out together.

After Bree super speeds home, she goes down to the lab, and is happy to find it empty. As quickly as she can, she starts adding her new clothes into the closet behind the rock wall, where Adam, Bree and Chase's clothes are all kept before the capsule puts them on. She flips on the light, trying to remember just how to do this. She's only installed her own clothes once before, and it was only one outfit. Inside, there are three long clothing racks that are ordered vertically and youngest to oldest. The silver racks look mostly like any kind of clothing rack, only extra-long and high tech, so that when an outfit for one of them is selected, it gets picked out and entered into the capsule itself. After all these years, it still confuses Bree.

When she finally figures it out—or at least she _thinks_ she figures it out—and walks out of the big closet, Chase is right outside waiting for her. He's got a smirk on his face. "What are ya doin'?"

"I could ask you the same thing," she smirks back and crosses her arms over her chest, imitating Chase.

Chase uncrosses his arms, still with a smirk on his face. "I was worried about you, Bree."

Bree interrupts him, "You did _not_ track my GPS signal."

"I searched the whole house for you."

Bree laughs to herself in disbelief over him talking, walking towards one of Mr. Davenport's cyber desks. She starts tapping away. "Why were you even looking for me?" she shakes her head without looking up.

"Because," Chase says defensively as he walks towards her. "I found this on the floor in the living room," he tosses a piece of paper on the cyber desk in front of her.

Bree picks it up and looks it over. "Crap," she mumbles. It was her detention slip for tomorrow after school. Mrs. Bailey caught her in the hallway near the end of the day today and gave it to her for tripping Abby. Holding back from rolling her eyes, she took it reluctantly. And as simple as that, Bree has detention tomorrow. She turns around to face Chase.

"What did you do?" he asks.

"None of your business," Bree says. "Can you just let it go?" she asks desperately.

"Yeah, I'll let it go. But only if you tell me what you were doing at the mall."

Bree exhales, "I was just buying some clothes," she gestures toward the closet, "obviously."

Chase nods his head, "Okay."

"Okay." Bree repeats before Chase starts walking away from her towards the elevator. Bree picks up the detention slip and looks it over again with a sigh.

Thursday morning, Bree wakes up and is actually _excited_ to go to school. After getting dressed, she grabs her hidden bag from MAC with her new makeup in it and heads to the bathroom. Before stepping in the capsule to get dressed, she set it not to put on makeup for her.

After finishing getting ready, Bree goes upstairs into the living room. Adam, Chase, Leo and Sloane are already there. Leo sees her first and immediately screams. The scream causes everyone else to look over at her. Bree smiles big without her teeth in return.

Bree's wearing high waisted jean shorts with dark ripped tights underneath and her new shiny black doc martens. On top, she's wearing a plain black bandeau and a red and black plaid shirt over it. She's also got a dark red beanie on her head. She's wearing dark red lipstick to match, and dark, bold eyeliner—and a lot of it.

Mr. Davenport makes his way downstairs just now and spots Bree, "_Whoa_, Bree. Why are you dressed like that?"

"Cuz," she puts her hands on her hips, "This is how I dress now. You should all get used to it."

"_Alright_," Davenport replies, "There's just one problem."

"The hell there is," she scoffs.

Sloane's mouth drops open even farther than it did when she first saw Bree.

Mr. Davenport doesn't look as surprised as Sloane, but still surprised. "You're not wearing that much makeup to school, little lady."

Bree bites the inside of her cheek, "Fine."

After having to wipe off some but not all of her eye makeup, Mr. Davenport drops them off at school.

Sloane walks with Bree instead of Chase to talk to her alone. "Bree? What's going on with you?"

Bree smiles as she puts her backpack in her locker and takes a few books out. "What do you mean?"

Sloane gives her a look.

"What's the big _deal_, Sloane," Bree slams her locker. "This new look is making me feel so…happy," she smiles mischievously.

"You don't look happy. In fact, you look _kind _of scary."

Bree rolls her eyes. "Get used to it," she says sharply. "This is how I dress now."

Sloane exhales softly as Bree turns to leave and heads to her first period.

Later during lunch, Bree's surprised to find Megan and her friends actually sitting at a table in the cafeteria. Without hesitation, she goes over and sits with them, walking right past her regular table without a word. She takes the last seat across from Megan and next to one boy and one girl she doesn't know.

"Whoa," Megan says with a little smile as she scans Bree.

Bree smiles a little back. "Like my new look?"

Megan nods, "I do." Bree decides to look Megan over. This is the first time Bree's seen her today. Bree assumes she skipped fifth period before this. Megan's wearing tight black leggings with quite a few rips and a Nirvana tank top. Her long blonde locks cover up the sides. On her feet, she's got all black vans on. She's significantly shorter now that she's not wearing really tall black high heels like yesterday.

"Are you going to introduce us?" The girl next to Bree that dresses similar to Megan asks, but is looking at Bree when she does. This girl has long brown hair but part of it is shaved right off, leaving a buzz cut behind.

"This is my little friend, B," Megan says maliciously. Bree feels like she just made a deal with the devil. "B, this is Rodrick," she points next to herself at the boy who got in her face yesterday. Rodrick smirks at her. "Kendra," Megan points at the girl sitting directly next to Bree. "Justin and Dean," the last two boys are to the left of her. Justin's hair is blonde and Dean's is dark brown like Sloane's. As soon as Bree realizes this, she forces it out, trying to keep Sloane out of her thoughts.

"Hey everyone," Bree says not too cheerfully.

"What grade are you in?" Kendra asks her.

"Eleventh, same as Megan," Bree's glad someone's talking to her.

"Rodrick's in eleventh too. I'm tenth, and those two are seniors," she nods her head towards Justin and Dean.

"Are you new or something?" Dean asks her.

"You could say that," Bree answers, then glances at Megan thinking she might say something. _I'm not lying, I'm a new Bree now,_ she thinks to herself as Megan smiles smugly at her.

When there's only about ten minutes left of lunch, Megan asks Bree to go outside with her. After Megan grabs her bag, they go out through the double doors in the cafeteria, and Bree didn't really know you were allowed to do that. She follows Megan out anyway, and no adults say anything to them. They walk around the corner of the building where there's no windows at all and sit down on a bench Bree didn't know was there.

Megan doesn't say anything, just puts her bag on her lap. She pulls a cigarette out of a box Bree can't see and places it in her mouth. Lighting it up, Bree watches her intently. She's pretty shocked, considering Mission Creek High is a smoke free environment. No one else is outside with them, but Bree hopes to god no one comes out.

After taking a long drag and blowing the smoke out, Megan finally looks at Bree. She holds the cigarette over the edge of the bench and taps it absent mindedly with one finger causing ashes to fall off of it to the ground.

"Megan?" Bree says sounding like a little girl. She quickly recovers and sternly says, "You know, my name's not B. Its Bree.

Megan rolls her eyes, "I know, kid. But I think B suits the new Bree better than Bree." She takes another drag from her cigarette.

"Are you…allowed to do that out here?"

"What? You got asthma or something?"

"No," Bree tries not chuckle. She's the fastest running person on earth for Christ sakes.

Megan lets out a breath of smoke. "You want to try it?"

_B_ looks from the cigarette to Megan's face. "Not right now," she acts like it's nothing.

Megan shrugs and drops the cigarette to the ground, followed by her squishing it with her right foot.

"So tell me what you want."

Bree snaps her head over to her. "What?"

"You went and bought a bunch of new clothes with your rich dad's money and completely changed how you dress and do your make up. Why?"

"I thought you liked it."

Megan chuckles, "Oh, I do." She looks at Bree.

"I did it so…I would fit in with you guys on the outside. My old clothes don't match my personality the way I am now," she looks away.

"As long as you're…who you appear to be, I like you. But no offense, you seem a little naïve. Rodrick likes you, I can tell. Don't let him or someone else take advantage of you."

_Rodrick_ likes _me? Define like,_ Bree thinks. "I wouldn't let someone do that."

"Are you sure? Because you act pretty desperate to be in this group."

Bree looks up and makes eye contact with Megan. "I'm only desperate to be friends with you. I couldn't care less about the 'group.'"

Megan laughs. "I think we're gonna have fun together, B."


	4. Chapter 4

It's about ten on Friday night, and Bree is getting ready to sneak out and go to Megan's. She makes her way into the living room quietly, where it's completely dark and empty. Tasha and Mr. Davenport think she's sleeping in the lounge room with a stomach ache. Just as Bree's about to reach for the door knob, the room lights up behind her. She turns to find Sloane in her all red onesie and dark purple monster slippers.

She's got confused look on her face. "Bree? I thought you were asleep in the lounge room." She sets an empty popcorn bowl down on the counter.

Bree forces a laugh, "I thought _you _were watching a scary movie with Chase." She speaks quietly.

"We ran out of popcorn," Sloane says in a higher pitched tone than normal.

"_Shh_," Bree urges. "Keep it down," she whispers and walks closer to Sloane.

"Why?" Sloane whispers back. She puts a new bag of popcorn into the microwave and presses start.

"I'm sneaking out."

"What? Where are you sneaking out to?" Sloane looks hurt.

"Just to Megan's . . ."

"That girl you've sat with at lunch the past two days?"

"Yeah . . . is there a problem?" Bree leans over the counter.

Sloane exhales, "I have a feeling there's going to be," she says under her breath.

"_What_?"

"Bree, you've been AWOL all week. Plus this whole new style of yours," she gestures to Bree's clothes.

"I thought we already talked about this yesterday. And I _tried_ to hang out with you on Wednesday," she snaps.

"I just miss you okay?" Sloane says quickly and agitated. "You're my best friend, Bree."

The microwave beeps.

Bree looks Sloane in the eye for a moment. "It's B," she says with a straight face before turning and walking away. Sloane doesn't call after her.

Once Bree gets outside, it's a little creepy and chilly. After quietly walking about ten feet away from the house, their outside light shuts off, making it really dark. She super speeds the rest of the way to Megan's house.

Back inside, Sloane pours the new bag of popcorn into the bowl and heads back to the home theater after shutting off the light. Chase turns and peaks over the top of his chair when he hears the door open.

"What happened? You look upset."

Sloane finally reaches him. "I am."

"Come here," Chase says and sets the remote on the armrest.

Sloane puts the popcorn bowl in her seat and instead sits on Chase's lap.

"Is it Bree?"

Sloane chuckles sadly, "Actually, it's B."

"What?"

"That's what she said to call her now. B."

Chase shakes his head, "I'm sure this whole thing will pass. She's just on about some stupid bad girl thing."

Sloane immediately sits up, taking her head off Chase's shoulder. "What now?"

"The other day when I went to sit with her, she was saying how she wished Kitana never came and that you only liked her because _she_ was a bad girl. She also thinks you want her to be more like that."

Sloane shakes her head now and rubs forehead, "Oh god. I thought she was over that."

"What do you mean?"

"This whole thing started like three months ago."

"Why's she so obsessed with it?" Chase says thinking the whole thing is extremely ridiculous.

"I don't know. But it's not like I can ask her now. She acts mad at me or something."

"She's just jealous that you've been hanging out with Kitana."

"The last time I even talked to her was Wednesday when we went to the mall. But who cares. That Megan girl is trouble. I've heard stuff about her Chase . . ." Sloane makes eye contact with him. "

"I know! I heard she did it with Benny Taylor in the boiler room after buying weed from him."

"You know she's already been suspended twice this year . . .the first time was because she put some girl in the hospital _on school grounds_ and the second was because they found a cigarette lighter in her locker. I've heard the boiler room thing too. I don't know for sure that she put someone in the hospital because I wasn't here but—"

"Oh, it's true. I saw the girl after she got beat up myself. I think she owed Megan money."

"Money for _what_?"

"Don't know for sure."

"I know one thing that's for sure. If Bree comes back with a lip ring and a whale tale I'll put _Megan_ in the hospital." Sloane fills her cheeks with air and blows out. The remote falls off the arm of the chair out of nowhere. Sloane inches backwards, "Oh my god this house is haunted!"

"Mr. Davenport built this house . . . there are no ghosts."

Sloane looks at him like he's crazy, "_Hello_, he probably built this on top of some ancient burial ground."

Chase looks like he just realized something, "No, Sloane. I think you did it."

"What? I didn't touch that remote."

"When you blew out! It must have something to do with you gravitation ability. You probably used your gravitational pull to push it away. Try something else!"

Sloane looks around and settles her eyes on the popcorn bowl. Picking it up, she hands it to Chase. "Can you hold this?"

Chase pulls his arm out from behind Sloane and takes the bowl with both hands, holding it away from himself. "Give it go," Chase encourages.

Sloane breathes out through her nose and prepares herself. Filling her cheeks with air again, she blows out the best she can. The bowl flies out of Chase's hands and spills onto the floor once it lands.

"Whoa!" says Chase.

"That's so weird! I don't even blow that hard and it goes flying," she smiles at Chase. "How did I not find this until now?!"

"Maybe you unlocked your first hidden ability."

"I didn't think I had any. Davenport was the only person who made me bionic. His brother didn't help."

"I don't know, but you might as well enjoy it."

"Do you think it will only work if I blow?"

Chase doesn't answer, so Sloane looks down at the popcorn a few feet away. She waves her arm away from herself and towards the popcorn once, and the popcorn rolls farther across the floor like fall leaves. Sloane turns her head and smiles at Chase, "This is so freaking awesome!"

Bree arrives at the address in just under thirty seconds after leaving. The house is really small and crowded near other houses. All of the lights are off, and she's not sure she's at the right house. She pulls out her phone and goes back to Megan's text. _26 Vienna Grove_, it reads. She's definitely at the right place. Bree walks up stone pathway to the door and knocks a few times. Just as she was about to forget it and leave, the door opens. Immediately she gets a whiff of ammonia and cheap perfume. Standing short and before her is _Principle Perry._

"Principle Perry?!" Bree says disgusted.

"What are _you_ doing here, gothic Barbie?" She scoffs, looking Bree over as she holds a grey cat in her right arm.

Bree starts walking backwards, "Absolutely nothing. Forget I was even here." She turns and super speeds away once she hears the door slam. She stops at the park and takes a seat at the bench. No one at all is at the park, which Bree is thankful for. Bree brings her legs up unto the bench and hugs them to her chest, trying not to cry. _I'm not going to cry, I'm not going to cry. It was just an accident. Megan sent her the wrong address on accident._

Bree pulls out her phone and calls Megan. She takes a deep breath and contains herself as she studies the vacant playground with her eyes. _God, it's so creepy here at night. _

"_B_, where _are_ you?" Bree hears Megan sweet voice say over the phone.

"You sent me the wrong address . . ." Bree stares at her knees.

An eruption of laughter bursts from the phone into Bree's ear. She holds it away to prevent herself from going deaf. Once it finally dies down, Bree says, "You sent me Perry's address on _purpose_?"

Megan laughs harder again. "Oh, B, don't take it so harshly. It was just a joke!"

She listens carefully, and realizes Megan's not the only one laughing. She's probably on speaker phone.

"Right," she mumbles, feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable.

"Just get down here," Megan says sounding like she wasn't laughing two seconds ago. "We're at Rodrick's, 32 Franklin." The line goes dead.

Bree hangs it up and slides it into her back pocket after standing up. Even though she refrained from crying at all, she wipes underneath her eyes, careful not to smear her excessive amount of black eyeliner. She pushes herself to super speed to Rodrick's and ignore her emotions, planning to walk in with her head held high.

Kendra, the tenth grader with a partially shaved head, opens the door for her before she can even knock.

"Hey, B," she says a little loopy. She grabs Bree's wrist and pulls her inside. "I hope you're not mad at us for the little joke," she turns her head for just a second to look at her. Bree can hear what she thinks is the Arctic Monkeys band playing in a near room. She doesn't know the song, because she doesn't really listen to them other than one of their singles that got popular. Kendra brings her into what seems to be the living room. This is definitely where the music's coming from. The first thing she notices is Megan in the far corner sitting on Rodrick's lap. She's sharing a cigarette with him. After pulling the cigarette from his mouth to have drag herself, she turns and sees Bree. She starts giving that mischievous smile to Bree again. She can't figure out what it means.

"Here," Kendra says, redirecting Bree's attention. She still hasn't let go of her wrist. Bree sits down on the floor next to her by the coffee table, right in front of Dean and Justin who are sitting on the couch on opposite ends. On the coffee table, there's a Beats pill and someone's silver iPod nano is connected to it. Secondly, there's a messed up deck of cards. There's also a bottle of blue Kinky vodka—half empty. Bree _guesses _Rodrick's parents aren't home.

Kendra reaches for the bottle of vodka and starts unscrewing the cap. She holds it out for Bree. She nonchalantly takes a gulp of it and hands it back to Kendra, then makes brief eye contact with Megan.

"Want to play a game of strip poker?" Kendra asks.

Bree glances at her immediately.

"Kidding," Kendra states. "Who wants to play spin the bottle?" she looks around the room at everyone.

"No way, Kendra," Rodrick says, "Come up with some new effing games."

Kendra looks down and stares at the deck of cards that are now in her hands. _Why's he so damn harsh?_ Bree thinks.

Megan gets up off of Rodrick's lap, putting out the cigarette in an ash tray next to the chair.

"F new games, Rodrick. What's your problem?" She walks over to the coffee table and plops down across from them. "I always love a good game of truth or dare." She looks in Bree's eyes again.

"You first," Rodrick says in a pissy tone. "Truth or dare, Megan?"

"Dare, _obviously_," she glances at him.

"Okay," Rodrick smirks. "I dare you to switch bras with B."

Megan laughs, "Was that some bad attempt to try to get us shirtless?" She starts taking her bra off without taking off her shirt. She slides it out from under her tank top and tosses it at Bree. Megan's black bra lands on her lap.

Trying to ignore how uncomfortable she feels, she does the same as Megan. She tries to put on Megan's bra now, but there's no cute way to put on a bra with a shirt on. After finally getting it on, Bree's relieved to find that it doesn't fit horribly.

"Dean," Megan says, looking above and behind Bree. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth," Dean says almost immediately.

Megan takes a moment to think. "Have you ever cheated on a girlfriend?"

Bree can hear him take a drink behind her, "Too soon, Megan."

"What?" Megan says defensively. "Maybe Carson cheating on you was Karma. I don't know."

"Shut your mouth," he rolls his green eyes.

Megan breathes out. "You guys are so grumpy tonight." She looks up at Bree, "B. Come with me," she stands up and Bree follows her lead.

She and Megan go into the bathroom and Megan locks the door. She pulls out a tube of mascara and starts touching up. Bree sits on the toilet with the lid down.

"Are you and Rodrick together?" Bree blurts out.

"No," she chuckles. "We fool around . . . but he's really just my friend. Why do you ask?" She puts the tube of mascara back in her back pocket. She's wearing black skinny jeans and purple tank top. Her feet are bare, and her toenails are of course painted black.

"I just couldn't tell."

"You're not interested right?"

"No way," Bree shakes her head. Rodrick's like, _really_ hot, but he doesn't seem crush-worthy.

"Rodrick's a great best friend, but a not-so-great boyfriend. It's better that you aren't." Megan finally stops with her makeup and faces Bree. "Sorry. The boys are apparently in no partying mood tonight."

Bree shrugs, not knowing what to say. "Who's Carson?"

"She and Dean broke up like two weeks ago because she was cheating on him with some artist," Megan crosses her arms and leans against the sink.

Bree connects the dots in her head, "An artist? Was his name Owen?"

Megan looks at her, "Yeah. I think so. How'd you know?"

Bree shakes her head, "The jerk cheated on _me_."

Megan looks flabbergasted. "What an idiot! Who'd cheat on _you_?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're so pretty."

Bree smiles, "Thanks. So are you."

Megan smiles back. "We should probably go back out there."

"Yeah," Bree stands. They go back out into the living room.

Around 1:30, Bree gets home. Justin courteously gave her a ride home, not that she needed it. It was a bit awkward, but she still appreciated the gesture. Under the whole bad boy persona, he seemed nice.

Bree goes quietly goes down to the lab, trying to act like she just woke up in the lounge room just in case. Adam and Chase are both peacefully sleeping. _Sloane probably told him I snuck out_, Bree thinks, _typical. You can't trust your best friend if she's dating your brother._

Notes: I'm so glad you guys are liking the sequel so far! To be honest, I didn't know if I was feeling it or not until I wrote this chapter, but now things are falling together in my head about how things are going to go later in the story. If you haven't noticed, this sequel focuses more on Bree than in Saving Sloane, which was basically all about Sloane herself. I'd also like to point something out about Megan's group. I'm not going to drop f bombs and bad words left and right, but in reality, that's what they'd do. I just put f's, but you can imagine the reality of it. Alright...enough of side comments. Please review and let me know what you think :)


	5. Chapter 5

In the morning on Saturday, Bree is awoken to a loud alarm going off in the lab. When she opens her eyes, Adam, Chase, Sloane, Leo and Mr. Davenport are all already down there rushing around. Bree opens her capsule door and steps halfway out.

"Finally, you're up," Chase says as he walks towards the capsules with Adam close behind.

"What time is it?!" Bree shouts.

"About eleven," Adam answers

"I can't believe I slept so late. Why didn't you guys wake me up?'

"Didn't you have an upset stomach last night?" Chase asks.

_Wow. Sloane didn't tell him_, Bree thinks. "Yeah . . ."

"Then you must have needed it. Get back in your capsule. We have to suit up."

Bree groans, "_Seriously_? I just woke up!" She steps back in her capsule and shuts the door.

After suiting up, they all step out, Bree a bit groggy.

"What's the mission?" Bree asks annoyed.

"There was an earthquake at my testing facility. Chemicals are spilled and ruined everywhere and they created some new formula. The test subjects are going insane, and they're rapidly growing."

"What _kind_ of test subjects?" Bree looks grossed out.

"Animals. What else? Human trials take place in a much more conserved environment." Mr. Davenport gives his attention to Sloane now, "Sloane, this is your first mission, but I'm confident you're prepared for it."

"Me too," Sloane stands next to Bree at the counter and puts her mission bag on the countertop.

"Let's head out guys," says Chase, "before these _test subjects_ get any bigger." He puts his mission bag over his shoulder.

"We'll be on the console to help," Leo says as they leave the lab.

When they arrive at the Testing Facility, things already look messed up. Within ten feet away from the entrance, you can hear screaming. They force their way in and right then, a chimpanzee three times its regular size knocks down one of the doors and goes ballistic. They all take a step back in surprise, but the big chimpanzee barely notices them. He goes down the hall roaring his lungs out.

"This is already worse than I thought," says Chase. "And I don't even know what other test subjects Mr. Davenport has here."

A giant rabbit about two feet in height comes hopping through the hall—out of one room and into another without paying any attention to them. Screams come from the room.

"Adam and Sloane: go to that room and start evacuating people. I need to find a sample of the enlarging chemical and try to reverse it. Bree, you come with me," Chase instructs. Everybody parts ways.

Sloane follows into the room behind Adam.

"Come with us," Adam says to the two people. They both look like they're scientists, one man and one woman. "We're here to get you out." They listen to Adam and Sloane without hesitation. Sloane guides them around the big white rabbit cautiously, but she doesn't think the _rabbit_ is a huge threat.

After passing them off to Adam, he takes them outside and Sloane is left alone with the rabbit. She looks around the room and sees lots of things—broken beakers, knocked over tables, equipment and long random cords. She slowly walks over to one of the outlets and cautiously tugs on an extension cord coming out of the wall all while not looking away from the rabbit. After unplugging it, she stays crouched on the floor and kind of crawls towards the rabbit.

"Hi," Sloane says with her high pitched talking-to-an-animal-voice. She slowly reaches a hand out to pet it on the head, and it only flinches a little before enjoying it. _He's just a regular rabbit, _Sloane thinks. She stops petting and begins putting the extension cord tightly but not too tightly around the rabbit's neck. She cautiously ties it, and the rabbit corporates until Adam comes bursting in.

"What are you doing?!" He shouts and the rabbit pulls back at the same time.

Sloane whips her head around. "_Adam_, "she growls. "I was just going to tie him to something until Chase can fix him."

"Ain't nobody got time for that," Adam says. "Let's just close the door."

"Yeah at this point," Sloane says and stands up, walking out in front of Adam. He locks the door from the inside before closing it. They head into more rooms finding people to evacuate as Sloane keeps trying to contain the animals including all different kinds that she wouldn't normally expect to be test subjects. There's even a big dog and cat, and Sloane already felt bad enough about the animals being test subjects.

In another hallway, Bree and Chase have been looking around and carefully stepping over the broken glass and equipment trying to find this mixed chemical. They peak their heads into different rooms. In one of them, there are guinea pigs and rats—_lab rats_—so big their bodies are being forced against the wiring of their small cages.

"That's just messed up," Bree says.

"I don't get it," Chase says as they go back to walking in the hall. "I thought the chemical would be dripping all over the place if all the animals are affected."

In Bree's eyes, everything suddenly gets a little smaller besides Chase. "Chase . . ." she says with in a worried tone.

Chase turns and faces her.

"I think the chemical is in the air and I think we just got bigger!"

"I think you're right!" Chase says frantically. "There's no way I can contain it to test it then reverse it!"

"What do we do?!" Bree shouts.

"I don't know!"

Over a loud speaker, a computerized voice says, "Chemical content maximum has been reached. Evacuate the building." Red lights start blinking everywhere.

"Oh my god," Bree says. "What about us! We're already one size bigger than normal Chase!"

"Just go scan the whole place and make sure everyone is out of here!" Chase says before running off into one of the rooms. Inside, there is a computer set up. He starts clicking away.

Bree super speeds around the building making sure everyone is evacuated. The only two who aren't are Sloane and Adam. They look a little bigger too.

"You got everyone out?" asks Bree.

"Just finished," Adam states.

"I've got some of the animals in a room so Chase can—"

"He can't do it, the chemical is in the air," Bree says. "Didn't you notice?! You two are bigger too."

Sloane looks down at herself. "Really? I guess you're right. What do we do?!"

"Building self-imploding in thirty seconds," the computerized voice says. Sloane's eyes widen. The countdown begins.

Chase comes running down the hall as fast as he can, "Go! We have to get out!" He shouts. Adam, Bree and Sloane follow the order and start running towards the exit. On the way, two hairy tarantulas the size of pizza boxes are slowly walking towards them. Probably harmless, but still disgusting.

"Ew!" Sloane says but keeps running. She uses her right hand to wave and make them both slam across the wall before they run by.

"How did you do that?!" Adam shouts out of breath.

"Figured it out last night," Sloane answers with perfectly steady breathing thanks to her superlative lungs app.

They finally get to the exit when the computerized voice gets down to seven. The four of them run out as fast as they can, besides Bree of course. She stays with them to not leave them behind and make sure they get out too. They run towards the people already evacuated and make it just seconds before the building implodes.

Chase is breathing heavy, "I can't believe we couldn't do it."

"We saved the people," Bree says trying to give them at least some credit.

"All those animals were just killed," Chase argues.

"It's not _your_ fault, Chase," Sloane says. "It's theirs," she quietly says under her breath to him, referring to the scientists and lab assistants.

Mr. Davenport sounds in Chase's ear, "We saw everything, don't worry, it's not your guys' fault. There was nothing more you could do."

"I know," Chase says, still trying to catch his breath. "But start working on a fix, because the four of us are coming home a bit taller. The chemicals that mixed are Eridium and Malignite."

"Gotcha. Leo and I will get right on it. You get those people to the holding house half a mile away. I have one for each facility."

Chase now hears Leo's voice, "They're phones and emergency supplies there for them to get home."

"Alright. See you when we get back." Chase looks at everyone, "There's a holding place half a mile away."

When Adam, Bree, Chase and Sloane get back home, they're all tired even though it's just about two in the afternoon. Adam lies down right on the counter in the middle of the lab, and Bree squeezes in next to him on top as well. Sloane and Chase plop down in two of the chairs next to the counter with frowns on their faces.

"Guys, don't look so down. You didn't fail the mission."

"We half failed it," Bree says with a neutral tone. She's mostly tired, not bummed about the facility imploding.

"The mission was always to save the people inside," Leo says.

"Whatever. I'm tired," says Bree.

"Well sit up. Time for your shots," Mr. Davenport says.

Bree sits right up, "What?!"

Mr. Davenport is walking towards her with a huge needle. Bree unzips her mission suit (she's wearing a tank top underneath) and pulls her left arm out reluctantly. Davenport does it without warning but quickly. Bree feels like she can feel it going into her arm. She winces, but it's over soon. She slowly forms back to her regular height and size.

"Who's next?" asks Davenport as he grabs a fresh needle and medicine. "Alice in Wonderland," he smiles at Sloane. "Your turn," he says.

Sloane gets up and walks over to him and unzips her mission suit like Bree did before and pulls out her left arm.

"You guys go change," he says to Adam and Chase. After Sloane is done with her shot and gets back to normal, Davenport gives Adam and Chase their shots once they get out of their capsules.

"You guys did good back there," Leo says, "Really. And congrats on your first mission, Sloane, even though it was a bit rough."

"Thanks Leo," says Sloane. She reaches out for Chase and gives him a hug, noticing he looks a little sad.

"Do you four want to get some lunch? You're probably starving."

"Yes, please," Bree says immediately. "I haven't eaten all day.

Sloane looks at her almost longingly. She's starting to regret even talking to Kitana in the first place since it meant losing Bree so fast. Sloane also feels as if it's her fault Bree's befriending Megan.

Everyone's starting to walk to the elevator to go upstairs and eat. "Wait, Bree," Sloane says.

Bree turns and Sloane looks at her. She finally looks normal again in her mission suit and no dramatic makeup. "Yeah?" she sounds like the old Bree too. Nice, and not annoyed at Sloane keeping her from finally eating.

Sloane waits until everyone's on the elevator, "We'll be up in a minute," she calls to them. After the door closes, Sloane still can't figure out what to say.

"Sloane, I'm kind of dying of starvation over here," Bree smiles a little.

"Sorry . . . it's just . . . Sorry I made friends with Kitana."

"What? You can be friends with whoever you want," Bree says narrowing her eyebrows. "I was just kind of mad because I felt like she was stealing you away from me."

Sloane shakes her head, "Not possible. You're my best friend."

"Sorry I made such a huge deal of it."

"It's whatever," Sloane shrugs, happy they're making up. Sloane smiles and uses a babyish voice, "Breebie?" She holds her arms out.

Bree laughs and gives her a hug. Even with the new clothes and makeup, she's still Bree underneath it all.

After the hug is over, Bree laughs again, "Shoot, I completely forgot I was still wearing my mission suit."

Bree changes in her capsule and now she looks like _B_ again—makeup and all.

As they walk towards the elevator, best friends again, Sloane says one more thing. "Bree?"

"What?"

"About Megan . . ."

Bree facial expression immediately changes, but she keeps quiet and continues walking. She doesn't know for sure if Sloane's about to say something bad or good.

"Chase and I are kind of worried about you hanging out with her and her friends . . ."

"And there it is," Bree stops walking and crosses her arms over her chest with a face of disbelief.

Sloane wishes she hadn't said anything.

Bree nods her head to herself. "First of all—screw Chase and what he thinks. He's my brother, not my dad. I value both of your guys' opinions, but I'm sick of these ones. I'm my own person and _I_ decide who I hang out with."

Sloane's about to say something, but Bree cuts in front of her.

"The most offensive part of it all is that you two don't seem to think I can take care of myself or something. I'm a big girl—older than the both of you for one. I can handle Megan. She has yet to go crazy on me, and I doubt she's going to. So just drop it. Don't bring it up again, and we can keep being friends. I hate fighting with you over something so stupid."

"Keep being _friends_?" Sloane tests, "I thought we were best friends," she shakes her head.

Bree ignores Sloane's state and says, "I'm not so sure anymore."

"Bree don't take it as an insult that I'm worried about you! It's just Megan has a really bad reputation."

"So what?!" Bree says immediately. "Rumors aren't always true and even if they are true it doesn't mean anything. What if people judged you from stupid rumors?"

Sloane doesn't say anything for a moment, "Please just . . . don't be mad at me, okay?"

"I will if you try to talk me out of being friends with Megan again," she sassily says.

"Fine," Sloane says and crosses her arms now. "I'll stay out of it."

"Okay?"

"Okay."

Notes: Hey guys, I hope you liked the chapter. It was actually really hard for me to figure out some random mission...haha :) I know it wasn't the best, but that's what I came up with. I guess you could assume they went on missions in the 3 month period between the last two chapters in Saving Sloane, but I never actually wrote one until now. For the record, those chemicals that 'mixed' are entirely fake. Anyways, let me know what you're thinking about the new Bree. Do you like her being bad like Megan does or do you want the old Bree back like Chase and Sloane do?


	6. Chapter 6

Monday after school, Bree's going over to Megan's house. As they get in Megan's car, Bree's surprised to find out that it's really clean inside.

"Nice car," Bree says impressed.

"Thanks," Megan answers proudly.

She pulls out of the school driveway and starts driving down the road. Bree sees Adam, Chase, Leo and Sloane walking home on the sidewalk. Sloane and Chase are holding hands and they're all laughing about something. She immediately feels a bit left out, but then she remembers she's in _Megan Ryleigh's_ car, and they're on their way to her house.

"Aren't those your brothers?" Megan asks.

Bree chuckles, "Yeah."

"Ya know I heard about the nerdy one totally wrecking Trent a few months ago," Megan says without looking over at her. "But don't worry, I was damn happy about it. I hate that guy."

"So do I, but why do you hate him?"

"He's just an ass for no reason."

"Did he ever do anything specific though?" Bree asks looking out the window.

She exhales out, "We dated."

Bree's taken aback, "What?!"

"It was quick and stupid," she acts like she hates admitting it. "Trust me. Plus, I've never told anyone this besides Rodrick, but he's abusive. I didn't and still wouldn't deal with that shit."

Bree has a flashback to Sloane's sweet sixteen party when he tried to take advantage of Sloane.

"I'm really not surprised. But I'm glad you got out of it."

Megan laughs, trying to lighten the mood, "It wasn't a difficult decision to make."

They finally pull into Megan's driveway, and the house is cute. It's small, but big enough.

"Just warning you," Megan says as they walk up the steps to the door, "My mom is _nothing_ like me."

"Your mom is home?" Bree says.

"She's a writer. She works from home," Megan answers with a somewhat rude tone as she walks through the front door with Bree close behind.

The front door opens into a small kitchen, with coordinating cooking supplies and pink decorative pieces. To the left, a door is open and Megan's mom is inside typing on a computer with a pair of reading glasses. Megan starts walking right past, but her mom notices.

"Megan," she says cheerfully, "Are you going to introduce me?" Her mom stands and walks out of the small room as Megan stops and turns.

"This is B," Megan states.

"Very nice to meet you," Megan's mom holds her hand out for Bree to shake. "You can just call me Christina."

Bree smiles and shakes her hand, "Nice to meet you too."

"So are you Megan's—"

"She's my friend Mom," Megan says, cutting her off.

"Oh, okay," says Christina, brushing it off.

"Come on," Megan steps onto the stairs, "Let's go upstairs, B."

"Have fun," Bree hears Christina say as they walk upstairs. There are pictures of Megan, her mom, and who Bree guesses is Megan's dad on the wall.

Megan slams the door once they're inside. Bree finally feels like she's in Megan's house. Megan's room is painted a deep purple and there are band posters plastered on the wall. Bree doesn't recognize most of them. Above her bed, there's a bulletin board with a bunch of pictures of her and people from the group. In one of them, she and Kendra are kissing Justin (who has a smug look on his face) on the cheek. In another, Rodrick is giving Megan a piggy back ride, and they both have smiles on their faces.

"I know it's small, but it's the best room in the house," Megan says and lies down on the bed heavily.

Bree sits on the end of the bed by Megan's feet. "Agreed," she smiles.

Megan stands and walks over to her black dresser, opening the top drawer.

She pulls out Bree's pink bra and flings it at her. "I believe that belongs to you."

Bree catches it and laughs. She stuffs it in her backpack.

Megan sits down next to her with a bounce. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know," Bree says without looking at her, nervousness falling over her for some reason.

Megan grabs Bree's face softly, and turns it to face her. "Why aren't you looking at me?"

Bree looks in Megan's eyes and keeps quiet.

"God you're pretty," Megan says.

Bree licks her lips and smiles; "Thanks . . ." she looks away again. "So is that your dad, in the pictures?"

"Yeah," Megan answers.

"What does he do?"

"He died five years ago."  
"I'm so sorry," Bree answers surprised. She thinks of the pictures in the frames again. _There _weren't _any recent looking pictures of Megan_, she thinks.

Megan turns Bree's head again but this time kisses her, square on the mouth.

Bree's more surprised than anything, but doesn't pull away.

Megan looks her in the eye after finishing the kiss.

"Um . . ." Bree starts.

"Was that okay?"

Bree's mind is rushing in confusion. _I just kissed a girl, _she thinks to herself. _Megan Ryleigh just kissed me—on the mouth. _

"B?"

"Yeah?"

"Was that _okay_?" Megan asks again.

"It was . . . nice . . ." Bree says slowly.

"Cool," Megan says nonchalantly.

"Yeah," Bree says in a daze.

"Do you want to walk down to the park?" Megan stands.

Bree instantly remembers when Megan played that prank on her. "Sure," Bree replies. They stand and walk out of the room, Bree feeling like they hardly stayed in there very long.

Megan stops in the middle of the stairs and looks at Bree, "I just don't like hanging out with friends here when my Mom's home," she whispers.

Bree nods once, _still _trying to process what happened just a minute ago.

As Bree's getting back home around five, Sloane is walking down the stairs, probably coming from her room. Chase is close behind her, and Leo is sitting at the island with Tasha in the kitchen. Sloane walks up next to Bree.

"Have fun at Megan's?" Sloane asks quietly.

"Yeah, it was awesome," Bree says, trying to make Sloane a little jealous. "Actually," Bree whispers before Chase gets too close to them, "Can I talk to you?"

"Yeah, of course," a worried look falls over Sloane's face.

"Where were you?" Chase asks.

"_None_ of your business," Bree answers.

Chase raises his palms in retreat and heads over to the kitchen. He sits down next to Leo.

"Let's go up to your room."

"Okay," Sloane leads the way.

Once they get to Sloane's room, Bree closes and locks the door behind her. She turns and looks at Sloane who is already sitting down on the sofa.

"Is this top secret information or something?"

"_Yes_," Bree insists and sits down awfully close to Sloane. "I'm just going to cut right to it."

"Alright," Sloane says.

Bree really does want to just say it, but it's pretty hard. "Megan, uh . . ."

"What?" Sloane says. Bree thinks she hears a trace of hope in Sloane's voice for something bad.

Bree looks at Sloane and bounces her leg up and down quickly. "Megan and I kissed . . . three times."

"What do you mean?" Sloane furrows her eyebrows.

"I mean what I said," Bree says, not wanting to repeat herself. "She kissed me at her house once, then when we went to the park, then when she dropped me off here."

Sloane looks around the room as she thinks, "Well . . . did you tell her to stop or something?"

"No, I didn't ask her to stop."

"Did you_ want_ her to stop?"

"I don't know," Bree says fast.

"I didn't think you were a lesbian . . . or bisexual or whatever."

"I definitely am not a lesbian," Bree says matter-of-factly. "I like boys and that's for sure."

"Is she? She doesn't act like it."

"I don't know," Bree groans. "She didn't act like it was a huge deal. She acted like it was a hug goodbye or something."

Sloane bites her lip as she contemplates. "Alright, first of all, I'm going to state the obvious. Megan is bisexual. The question _is_ are you?"

Bree stands up abruptly and looks down at Sloane with an angry look on her face. "Just _forget_ I even told you!"

"Bree, what's wrong?!" Sloane stands up too. "I'm just trying to help!"

Bree furiously shakes her head, "I'm not a fricking dyke, okay?!"

"I didn't say you were!" Sloane takes step closer. Sloane immediately thinks, _why is she flipping out?! _

"And I don't _care_ what your sexual orientation is!" Sloane continues, "That doesn't define who you are and I'd love you either way."

Bree grabs Sloane by the arms, "Just. Forget. I said. Anything." She lets go of Sloane and reaches for the door handle.

"Bree, wait," Sloane tries to stop her.

Bree keeps walking and slams the door behind her. She pushes past Chase, who was headed for Sloane's room.

Chase grabs her arm, "What's going on?''

Bree looks up and it looks like she's about to cry, but clearly she's holding it together.

Chase's voice gets significantly softer and nicer, "Are you okay?" He doesn't let go of her arm.

Bree grabs him into a hug, pressing her cheek against his shoulder. Chase automatically hugs her back with one hand on her head. He can tell by the fast rising and falling of her chest she's trying not to lose it and cry.

"Bree?" he says quietly.

She pulls back, "Sorry."

Chase gives her a weird look, "Don't be sorry. What's wrong?"

Bree looks him in the eye. Her sweet little brother, who loves her unconditionally. Here she is, completely changing her attitude and wardrobe in the span of a night and he doesn't care about that. Well, Sloane said he was worried about her hanging out with Megan, but in all fairness, who wouldn't be? Even when he blabs to Mr. Davenport and acts like he's leading a mission _24/7_, in the end, it's because he cares.

Bree gives him a tight smile and stands on her tippi toes to give him a kiss on the cheek quicker than the blink of an eye. "Thanks Chase," she grabs his right shoulder. "Love you," she mumbles before quickly walking away, trying to ditch the situation. Chase's face pulls a little sideways smile.

As she's about to walk down the stairs, Chase stops her. "Bree," he says.

She turns and looks back at him on the top step.

"Love you too, sis," he says. They exchange a smile with each other, giving each of them a warm feeling in their stomachs.

Chase turns and heads to Sloane's door. She whips the door open before he can knock.

"You and Bree were fighting again, weren't you?" He asks.

Sloane grabs his wrist and pulls him inside before closing the door. "I don't get it," she walks by him and sits back down on the sofa. "Every time I just try to help her, it leads to Bree getting mad at me. This time I thought she specifically wanted my help."

Chase plops down next to her.

"She _asked _if we could talk." Sloane grabs for Chase's hand, intertwining her fingers with his.

"So she's the one who keeps getting mad?" Chase confirms.

Sloane nods her head and looks down at their hands held together. She runs the fingers on her free hand over his.

"I think she's having a tough time right now," he gives Sloane's hand a squeeze.

"_She's_ having a tough time?! I'm losing my best friend!" She loosens her grip on Chase's hand, causing him to hold it tighter.

"I _know_ baby," he rubs his thumb against hers, "but I think she's doing some soul searching, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I guess," Sloane mumbles.

"My best advice is to just give her some space."

"How much more space does she need? We used to hang out basically all day now it feels like barely at all."

"I know it's hard but . . ."

"But what?" Sloane turns her head to look at the side of his face

"I don't know, Sloane," he looks at her. "I just know that if she doesn't get to figure this out on her own things are just going to get worse. We can't intervene."

"She came to _me_!"

"Sloane," Chase breathes out.

Sloane pulls her hand away from Chase's even though he tries to hold it tightly. Chase leans forward and looks at her with disbelief.

"Seriously?" he snaps.

Sloane shakes her head like she's disappointed.

"You're _honestly_ getting mad at me over this."

Sloane doesn't look at him. "You're taking her side because she's your sister," she pauses, "but I need you right now."

"I'm not taking her side or anyone's side. I thought you didn't want there to _be_ sides to choose from."

"Can you just leave me alone right now?" Sloane asks softly, still not looking at him.

Chase waits just a few seconds to make sure before storming out angrily. He slams the door, startling Sloane. He can't believe how _ridiculous_ she's being.

Inside her room, Sloane shifts so that she's laying down, her head at the end of the sofa where Chase was just moments before. She turns on her side, pulling her legs in. She can still smell his scent against the back of the couch. Sloane lets tears fall from her eyes gently, but doesn't make a sound. She shuts her eyes and eventually falls asleep.

"Chase?" Tasha asks. "Can you grab Sloane? I think she's in her room. Dinner's ready."

Chase pauses _Mortal Kombat, _Sloane's favorite video game,and clenches his jaw. No. He doesn't want to go 'grab Sloane.' She picked a fight with him for no reason and frankly, he's not ready to kiss and makeup with her. But he can't say no to Tasha. "Fine," he sighs and sets the game controller down on the coffee table. He's the only other person in the room with Tasha, so there's no one else for her to ask. Regardless, she'd probably still ask Chase to do it, considering he and Sloane are together.

Chase stomps up the stairs and makes his way to Sloane's bedroom. He opens the door without knocking to find her lying down on the sofa. "Sloane," he shouts. "Dinner."

She immediately turns and rubs her right eye. It's obvious he woke her up. She looks puffy and tired—_and_ tremendously cute. _No_, Chase thinks, _this is not the freaking time._

Sloane pulls herself up and leans her back against the arm rest. As she rubs her face, she can feel the dryness of her skin from the tears before. Chase is still in the doorway, leaning his forearm against the door frame, and his head against his forearm. His opposite hand is on the doorknob. Sloane can tell by the look on his face that he's thinking hard.

"What do you think?" She asks, her own voice disgusting her. Not quite morning voice, but part of the way there. She stretches, pushing her shoulders back.

Chase immediately looks from the floor over to her. _He _finds that voice extremely adorable. He leans off the door frame and shakes his head. "Get over here," he says firmly without a change in his facial expression.

Sloane slowly stands and walks over to him.

Chase grabs her hips once she's in reaching distance and pulls her right against him, planting a passionate kiss on her lips.


	7. Chapter 7

When Bree wakes up Tuesday morning, she immediately remembers yesterday and gets a sick feeling in her stomach. She's the first one out of her capsule and upstairs. Still in her pajamas, she finds her way to the living room. Tasha's already there watching the early morning news.

"Tasha?" Bree says.

"You're up earlier than normal," Tasha replies.

"I know, but I have to ask you something," she sits down on the couch with her.

"What is it?" Tasha mutes the TV.

"Do you think I could maybe, stay home today?"

"Are you feeling okay?"

"Not mentally . . ." she shakes her head.

"I don't know—"

"Just this once, please. I know Mr. Davenport won't swing for it but I'll go to school tomorrow and stuff I promise. Just tell him I don't feel well.

"I can't lie to him, sweetie."

"It's not a lie, Tasha. I _don't_ feel well. You can convince him to let me stay home."

"Fine, but just this one time, Bree."

"Thank you, thank you," Bree leans over and gives her a hug.

"You're welcome, but this is going to be your only mental health day of the year so enjoy it."

"I will," Bree stands and heads back to the elevator to go back down to the lab.

During school at lunch, Adam, Chase, Leo and Sloane are at their regular table. Sloane hasn't been able to stop worrying about Bree staying at home today.

While they're talking with each other, Sloane notices Megan getting up from her table. She trudges over to theirs casually. Sloane gets a few butterflies of worry in her stomach. _I know what you did to Bree, Megan_, she thinks.

Megan reaches their table, placing both hands on the top of it and leaning over. Her chipped black painted nails are close to Sloane's elbow, and she's sure Adam and Leo can see right down her Megan's shirt with how she's leaning over. She smells like cigarette smoke.

"Hi," she says. "I'm Megan."

No one says anything. Sloane looks up at the side of her pale face.

"Why isn't B here today?" she asks.

Chase finally speaks up, "She's sick, I guess."

"Alright," Megan replies with a smile. "Let her know we say hey."

Chase just gives her a nod, and then she heads back to her table.

"I'm not letting her know a thing," Chase says to them.

"Good," Sloane says.

"Why aren't you telling her?" asks Leo.

"Because," Chase snorts, "That girl is just causing problems."

"Why do you guys think Bree is so easily influenced? She's making her own choices."

Sloane is surprised at Leo's outburst. "We know that, Leo. But it doesn't change the fact that Megan and her 'group' are giving her the leverage to _be_ influenced."

"I don't think we should tell her either," Adam inputs.

"Oh, please," Leo says. "You think Megan's not going to text her or something. And all she said was hey—not meet me in the boiler room."

Chase almost chokes on his food with laughter, but Sloane doesn't find the joke funny after what Bree told her last night.

Sloane sighs, "Don't make jokes like that."

The kids get home from school around three, and Sloane finds Bree in the lounge room on the couch with a blanket. She's watching Project Runway on TV. She looks all cuddly and cute.

"Hey, B," Sloane says sweetly. Bree told her to call her that, so she's willing to do it. However, Bree tries her best not to cringe at hearing it.

"Hey, Sloane," Bree smiles a little. "You can just call me Bree, by the way." She shakes her head, "Forget what I said the other day."

Sloane breathes out and smiles, "Awesome." She closes the door and sits down on the couch after Bree moves her feet up.

"How was school?"

"Fine," Sloane answers simply. "You weren't sick today, were you?"

Bree sighs, "You know me too well."

Sloane laughs, not knowing what to say. "I think it's good you stayed home today. You seem more like yourself."

Bree instantly looks over at her, "What do you mean?"

"I don't know," Sloane shrugs. The end of Sloane's sentence gets interrupted by Bree's phone chiming.

Bree ignores and moves over closer to Sloane and puts the blanket over her too.

"Want to know why I didn't go to school today?" Bree shuts the TV off.

"Why didn't you?" Sloane asks even though she thinks she already knows why.

Bree goes what feels like a minute without saying anything. "I don't want to see Megan . . . ." she fiddles with her thumbs instead of looking at Sloane.

Sloane rubs her lips together, not knowing what to say again.

"I thought _a lot_ about what happened yesterday, and I'm really _not_ okay with it."

Sloane stays quiet, silently urging her to finish what she started.

"I don't like girls," Bree shrugs. "I just don't."

"Tell Megan that," Sloane finally says as she grabs Bree's right arm with her left hand.

"I'm afraid she's not going to want to be my friend at all, Sloane."

"If she doesn't still want to be your friend then it's her freaking loss. You're amazing," Sloane says with a smile. "She or anyone who doesn't want to be friends with you must have some _serious_ issues."

Bree looks at her and silently laughs.

"Honestly," Sloane pulls herself closer and lays her head on Bree's shoulder.

Bree wraps her arms around Sloane, hugging her. "You really are my best friend."

Sloane hugs her back, "I really am. Now, let's go do something," she sits up.

"We can't leave the house. Davenport thinks I'm too sick to go to school, so I'm too 'sick' to go anywhere."

"That's okay. We can hang out here."

Bree smiles to herself, happy they went five minutes without fighting.

"Want me to go grab a DVD?" Sloane asks.

"Yeah, but pick a chick flick," Bree laughs.

Sloane tilts her head at Bree with a slightly exasperated face after standing up. "_Really_?"

"_Yes_," Bree laughs again.

"Fine," Sloane gives in. "I'll go find one."

After Sloane leaves the room, Bree reaches over to the side table and picks up her phone. The screen reads Megan's name on the lock screen and _Text_ _Message_ underneath.

She slides the notification across the screen to unlock it and open to the text.

**Megan: **Hey B where were u today?

**Bree: **i didnt feel very well but im better now

**Megan: **thats good. Are u gonna be in school tmrrw

**Bree: **Yea…but i have to tell u something

**Megan: **What is it?

Sloane walks back into the room _John Tucker Must Die _in her left hand. "This okay?" she holds it up for Bree to see.

"Yeah, that's fine," Bree answers then looks down at her phone. She quickly types.

**Bree: **ill tell u at school

**Megan:** ok..

Bree locks her phone and sets it back on the side table.

Sloane sits back down next to Bree, "Who texted you? Megan?"

"Yeah . . ."

"Did you tell her?"

"No," Bree shakes her head, "I'm going to tell her tomorrow at school."

Sloane raises an eyebrow at her.

"I will. Seriously," Bree nods once.

"Okay," Sloane retreats and presses play.

Later that night after they eat dinner, Adam, Chase and Leo go for a boys' night out to the movies. _The Amazing Spider-Man 2 _is still playing, so they decide on that. Leo wanted to see it before, but Janelle insisted on seeing _The Other Woman_ . . . Leo almost fell asleep. Chase is the only one who already saw Spider-Man with Sloane.

Adam drives them to the theater in the mall. Adam driving still makes Chase nervous, but he _did_ pass his driving test. They arrive just before seven, which Chase complains about since the movie starts at seven. There's practically no one there considering it's a Tuesday night, which makes it very easy to notice Trent outside of the theater entrance with some blonde guy. He doesn't look much older than twenty, not a far distance from Trent's age. Trent makes eye contact with Chase, and points at him. The other guy looks at him too, but smirks. Chase looks away and ignores them after giving the stranger a weird look for smirking. He knows for sure Trent wouldn't ever try anything on him after what happened at Sloane's birthday party. He hasn't even given Leo any trouble at all since the incident.

Adam, Chase and Leo walk into theater 5 after getting their snacks and find a seat a few rows from the back. There's only two other people in the room—an old couple, who decided to sit awfully close to the front.

After the lights dim a bit and trailers start playing, the blonde guy who was talking with Trent before walks in alone. Of all the seats in the room, the guy decides to sit right behind the three. Directly behind Adam, who is sitting in between Chase and Leo. He doesn't say anything to them, but Chase was on full alert the whole movie. _Who knows why he was talking to Trent? Or sat directly behind them? That guy is sketchy_, Chase thinks, _and I'm not taking my chances._

Notes: Heyy everyone! It seemed like chapter 6 reactions were half and half. Some people liked it, some didn't, and that's okay. Let me know what you think of this one. Any idea who this mysterious blonde guy is?


	8. Chapter 8

When Bree finally sees Megan on Wednesday, it's not until her fifth period Trig with her. Luckily, Megan isn't late today, so Bree will have time to talk to her before class starts.

"Hey," Megan says as she takes her seat next to Bree.

"Hey, about that thing I have to tell you," Bree says immediately. She's imagined how this will play out a million times in her head all day.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot," Megan puts her bag under the desk. "What'd you have to tell me?"

Bree glances around the room and sighs at what she sees. "I can't tell you here. There's too many people."

Megan glances around too, "No one's paying attention. Just say it."

Bree presses her lips together. "Fine, okay." She lowers her voice, "I don't like you as more than a friend. It's just . . . I'm straight, Megan." Bree looks away from Megan's face.

Megan laughs softly, "O_kay_."

Bree gives her a slightly confused look.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

Bree raises an eyebrow and slowly says, "You like me."

Megan shrugs one shoulder, still smiling at Bree like she's childish. "Kind of."

"What?" Bree says annoyed.

"I could be asking you the same thing. We're just friends Bree . . ."

"Yeah," Bree nods, "That's right." She talks assertively.

The late bell rings.

Megan nods back at her, the smile finally fading. She turns faces the front of the room.

_What_, is all Bree can think. Why the hell was she kissing her if she thought they were just friends?

"Well? What happened?" Sloane finds Bree right when she's about to enter the cafeteria for lunch. She pulls her aside so they're not blocking the entrance.

Bree look puzzled for a moment. "Oh, right," her facial expression changes from confused to annoyed. She speaks quietly, "She acted like I was freaking crazy telling her."

"What do you mean?"

"She was all 'we're just friends, B.'"

Sloane thinks for a second. "Well, I guess that's good, right? She wasn't mad . . . she just made close to no sense."

"I guess," Bree shrugs.

"Are you sitting with us today?" Sloane asks hesitantly.

Bree's caught off guard by Sloane's question. "Um, no . . ." she looks her in the eye. "I'm sitting with the group."

"Right," Sloane exhales, "the group. You wouldn't want one of them to get mad and beat you up or something."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Sloane looks Bree over, keeping quiet. "I'm starving," she walks around her and goes into the cafeteria.

Bree lets her go, following behind then continuing straight to Megan's table.

Sloane takes a seat at their regular table next to Chase. Everyone else is already there.

"Hey," Chase smiles.

"Hey," Sloane smiles back and gives him a quick kiss on the cheek. "So, guys, I didn't get a chance to ask. How was your boys' night?"

"The movie was awesome," Adam says with a smile appearing on his face.

"Yeah, it was good," Leo chimes in.

"I liked it too when we saw it," Sloane says.

Chase hasn't said anything. He has a hardened look on his face.

"Chase? Are you okay?"

Chase snaps his head up and looks over at Sloane, coming out of his daze. He was remembering the creepy blonde guy.

"Yeah, I'm fine, babe," he nods.

Sloane takes a bite of her sandwich as Kitana sits down next to her.

"_Hey_," Sloane smiles at her.

"Hey, guys," she replies.

"Where've you been the past two days? And you weren't in English . . ."

"I know. I was sick, and I came in late today."

"You're better now?"

"Yeah," Kitana smiles, "Doctor said so and everything."

"So that's where you came from?"

"Exactly."

"What did you have?" Chase asks.

"Ear infection," Kitana makes a sickened face.

Across the room, Bree notices Kitana sit in her old spot. Surprisingly, she doesn't even care anymore.

"Alright," Megan grabs everyone's attention. "Where are we hanging out this weekend? My mom's going to be home, so my place is a no go."

Rodrick shakes his head, "My parents are home every day this weekend too."

"Well they _were_ just gone last weekend. What about your house, B? I've kind of been dying to see it," she smiles. "I bet it's huge."

Bree forces a smile before answering. "I'm surprised you even asked. Even if my parents were out, my brothers and Sloane would be home."

"We could go to my apartment," Dean says.

"Shut up, Dean," Megan scoffs. "Last time we went there your d-bag landlord threatened to call the police."

"Actually, it was the last time _you_ went there," Dean defends himself. Megan rolls her eyes at him. "And it was because the time before _that_ you were smoking in the apartment."

"Either that or he's scared of any of your friends. Remember when you and Carson—"

"Stop," Dean says.

"Let's just go to my house," says Justin, putting an end to Megan tormenting Dean like she always does.

"Which _one_, Justin?" Megan asks annoyed. His parents are divorced, and Justin is on a crazy living schedule. Some nights he's at his mom's; some nights he's at his dad's.

"My mom's—she's taking Jazmyn and Jaxon to my grandparents' house for the night. They live two hours away. . ."

Kendra smiles, "Well, why didn't you say so?"

"How'd you get out of that?" Megan scoffs.

Justin rests his elbows on table, "I told her I wasn't going. Simple as that, Megan."

Megan leans back against her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. "I could never get out of something like that. My mom would never let me."

"I'm surprised _you_ would let your mom stop you," Bree says before she realizes it.

Megan immediately makes eye contact with her before just shrugging. Bree's surprised she didn't get some smart remark from her.

"So we're going to Justin's?" Kendra asks.

"Yeah, Kendra," Rodrick confirms.

"Where is your mom's house exactly?" Bree asks, looking at Justin.

Justin looks past Dean and Kendra to her and smiles, "I'll pick you up."

Bree can't help but smile back, "Okay."

Megan rolls her eyes again, "Oh, please." Bree immediately looks at _her_ now. _What's her problem today? Honestly—she just keeps being rude to everyone_, Bree thinks.

"Megan? Want to go . . ." Bree nods her head to the cafeteria exit. She wants to know what's up with her.

Megan grabs her bag, "Yeah, I do." She leads the way, and Bree follows her out. Bree instantly feels the sun against her skin, and it feels great. She squints her eyes because of the brightness.

When they reach the bench, Megan pulls her pack of cigarettes from her bag. She grabs a ciggy, but before she can close the box, Bree grabs one too.

Megan raises her eyebrows, "You sure?"

"Light me up," Bree retaliates with an annoyed tone.

Megan lights Bree's cigarette followed by her own. Bree puts it to her lips, wanting to prove something to Megan. She breathes in a little too much and although she tries her very best not to cough, she does anyway. She couldn't help it.

Megan giggles, "Don't inhale so much."

Bree tosses the cigarette on the ground, pissed off. She puts one of her all black converse on top of it, and twists her foot on it. "F it," she says shaking her head. "This is so stupid. I actually _don't_ want to die of lung cancer."

Megan chuckles, "Alright."

Bree almost feels like she's getting a faint pain in the center of the stomach, but ignores it. It barely feels like it's even there. "Why are you acting so rude today, Megan? I mean, back inside . . ." Bree clutches her stomach with her left hand; the pain is definitely there, and it's getting significantly worse.

"What?!" Megan shouts, clearly agitated.

The pain in Bree's body is spreading from her stomach to her chest and her waist, and it's growing unbearable. It feels kind of like a really sharp cramp. She springs up without saying anything to Megan, and fast walks back to the double doors.

"_Bree_!" she hears Megan shout after her, but she has to keep going. The pain has reached down to her knees and up to her shoulders. She whips the door open and goes straight to Chase, grabbing his shoulder. She's on the verge of tears because it's so painful.

"Bree?" he turns immediately after the violent grabbing of his shoulder. He wasn't exactly expecting it to be her.

"Chase," she says, suddenly feeling exhausted on top of the excruciating pain.

"What's wrong?!" Sloane says.

"Chase, I need you," she says frantically. Bree puts her hand right on her chest now, the pain spreading to her neck. She uses her right hand to grab his wrist, pulling him up and into the hall. Using all her strength, she super speeds them to an empty hall.

"Bree, what the heck is going on?!"

Bree grabs her head with both hands and can't help but scream. The pain has undeniably gotten to her head, and it feels like a headache—but five at once.

"Bree!" Chase says through his teeth, looking around to make sure no one is coming now.

Bree locks her fingers behind her head, putting her arms against the sides of her head. She slides down to the floor against the random lockers behind her. She shuts her eyes tightly, trying to cope with the throbbing of agonizing pain in her body. It's all over her now. "What's happening to me?!" she brings herself to say.

Chase leans down anxiously and grabs her knees which are pulled against her chest. "What were you doing outside?" He's trying to keep her calm while keeping himself calm all at the same time.

Bree stutters a little, "I was talking with M-Megan." She keeps her eyes securely shut.

Chase shakes his head even though she's not looking, "What else?!"

She doesn't want Chase to know at all, but she knows it's what must be doing this to her. "I tried an effing cigarette okay?!"

"On school grounds?!"

"Chase!"

"Sorry, but you should've thought this through! Look what it's doing to your bionics!"

"I noticed, Chase!" She whines now, "Just fix it! I can't take this pain!" Tears begin falling from her eyes. She bites her bottom lip, trying to get her mind off of it.

Seeing her like this is getting to Chase, and getting to him horribly. He has to look away so he can rack his brain. He turns his head to look at Bree again, a crying mess with eyeliner all down her cheeks. He uses his x-ray vision to look her over. He can see what the x-ray defines as 'foreign-matter' all throughout her tiny body. _How is it even getting there?! _Thinks Chase, _Why isn't it just in her lungs?!_

Chase shakes his head, knowing he can't do much of anything to help her, "I have to call Mr. Davenport, Bree."

Bree shakes her head, "Just do it. I don't even care anymore, I can't take this!"

Seeing Bree act and lash out like this is almost bringing _Chase_ to tears. He turns away again and pulls out his cell phone, quickly dialing Davenport's number. Although he's _trying_ to concentrate on the phone ringing, he just can't ignore Bree's whimpering and failed attempts at keeping from crying behind him.

"Hello?" Davenport answers.

"Mr. Davenport," Chase says in a desperate tone, "Bree tried a cigarette, and now her bionics are going insane. She's crouched on the floor in the middle of the hall in severe pain and the bell is going to ring any second!"

"You're going to have to bring her home. She needs to get in her capsule so it can release the toxins from her body. That's the only thing we can do!"

"How am I supposed to—"

"She's going to have to super speed or she might pass out before she gets back!"

"I don't think she can, Mr. Davenport!"

"Tell her she has to!"

Chase hangs up and turns to Bree, "Bree, you need to super speed home! You have to!" He grabs her forearm and starts to try pulling her up, but she her body is completely stiff. "_Bree_, I know it's really hard but you have to!"

The bell rings, making Bree realize she really has no choice, and lets Chase pull her up.

"Come on, Bree, you can do it," Chase says when she finally opens her eyes. She's leaning quite a bit of weight on him.

"I don't think I can," she says in a whiny tone as she shakes her head.

Chase uses his hand to try and wipe away the eye liner that ran down her face, but it does little to help. Students start filing into halls. "Come on, Bree," Chase tries again.

Bree brings herself to let go of Chase, feeling like she's going to fall as soon as she does so. She starts running before she can let herself fall, and is back at the house in a matter of seconds. Mr. Davenport was thankfully already waiting for her right outside.

He puts her arm over his shoulders so he can help her walk as soon as she reaches him. "You're going to be okay," he says.

For Bree, it feels like it takes five minutes on the elevator to get down to the lab. Mr. Davenport drags her over to her capsule after the elevator doors open. Bree puts all of her weight against the wall of her capsule so that she doesn't fall. Davenport closes the door for her and rushes to the cyber desk in front of the three capsules. He taps the screen and quickly gets the capsule ready to release the toxins. He pushes the last red button, and Bree feels the pain gradually drain from her body. She can soon stand up straight, but still places both hands against the sides just to make sure. Soon enough, she feels back to normal, not one ounce of pain. Before she steps out, she feels the capsule change her clothes, and fix her hair and makeup. Mr. Davenport must have done it.

"You can come out now, Bree," he says.

Bree slowly steps out and sits down on the edge afterwards.

"Please don't yell at me," she says before Mr. Davenport can say another word. "I know it was the stupidest thing ever, trust me—especially now. It only took me one little inhale before I tossed it to the ground, realizing how dumb I was acting. The whole bionic thing, however, somehow did not occur to me."

Davenport doesn't reply for what feels like a minute, "Well, Bree, I think you've been punished enough," he sighs. "And I _really _don't think you're going to smoke again."

"You got that right," Bree shakes her head at herself. _I can't believe how stupid I am_, she thinks. _I totally didn't think about my bionics, not to mention all that bad stuff I've been learning about cigarettes since the fifth grade._

"If you don't want to go back to school, I guess you don't have to."

"I do have to," Bree stands up. "I just missed school yesterday."

"Now _that's_ the responsible daughter I know."

Bree smiles and hugs him, "Thanks for taking care of me just now."

"You're welcome. Now get back to school."

Bree laughs. "See ya later."


	9. Chapter 9

At the end of the day on Wednesday, Megan catches Bree right when she gets out of eighth period study hall with Sloane.

"B," she grabs her arm.

Bree turns to Sloane, "Go ahead, I'll find you guys in a minute."

Sloane nods and heads outside to find Adam, Chase and/or Leo.

"What happened with you earlier?" Megan asks quickly.

Bree takes a deep breath, "I have no idea. Something just came over me and I felt like I was going to be sick or something."

"Okay . . ."

"What happened with _you_ earlier?" Bree retaliates.

"What are you talking about?" Megan tilts her head.

"Just what I asked you earlier . . . you were being really rude to everyone at lunch."

Megan shrugs, "Get used to it. I can act however I want to." Megan crosses her arms over her chest, and looks Bree over. "See you tomorrow," she walks around her and meets up with Rodrick who was making his way over to them. Rodrick puts his arm over her shoulders.

Bree shakes her head and waits until they disappear out the exit before leaving herself. She finds her brothers and Sloane as soon as she leaves the school and walks over to them.

"You okay?" Sloane asks.

Bree gives her weird look, "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

Sloane shrugs, "Let's go home."

Once they get home, Leo gets a text.

"Big D just texted me," he says. "He wants us to go down to the lab."

Bree sighs, "I wonder what defective invention he's made now." She tosses her backpack on the couch.

"Hey, guys!" Mr. Davenport says as soon as they walk over to him. There's some round metal looking thing on the top of the counter. "You have to check out my new invention. I call it the on-the-spot. You type in any two items, and they switch places."

"And the point of that _is_?" Bree questions as she sits down.

"Let's say you need something on the other side of the room—you can just switch its place with something close to you, and then you don't need to get up."

"Yeah, not unless I don't have this dinosaur sitting next to me," Bree rolls her eyes.

"I'll show you," Davenport continues, ignoring Bree's lack of enthusiasm. "I left my drink over there at Leo's desk, so I'll just switch its place with this," he picks up screwdriver sitting on the counter next to a bunch of other tools he probably used to finish his invention. Mr. Davenport types in the two items, and sure enough, his drink and the screwdriver switched places. "_See_? Isn't that cool?"

"Mm, not really," Leo states.

"Let me try it," Sloane says, taking a seat next to Bree and Chase who is sitting on the top of the counter. She turns the on-the-spot so the front of it is facing her. On the front, she now sees it has a small screen on it. Sloane quickly types in two things. Item 1: _Chase_ Item 2: _Adam. _Sloane giggles before pressing the switch button, and almost instantly, Adam is sitting on the counter next to her, and Chase is standing by the end of the counter, both of them letting out a scream.

Sloane and Bree both laugh.

"Good one," Leo claps.

"This isn't for fun and games, Sloane," Mr. Davenport takes the invention back. "This is million dollar technology."

Sloane exhales and shares a look with Bree.

"That was so—"Chase starts.

"Cool!" Adam interrupts, "Let's do it again!"

"I was going to say weird, Adam. And I can't believe you just did that, Sloane."

Sloane chuckles, "It was just a joke, Chase."

Chase just crosses his arms over his chest, but doesn't look particularly mad.

"Alright," Mr. Davenport says as he picks up the on-the-spot. "I'm going to put this over here," he walks over to his work desk closer to where the elevator is. "I don't want any of you messing around with it."

"Yeah, yeah," says Leo.

"I'm going upstairs, I've got homework to do," Chase says.

"Oh," Sloane says, hopping out of her chair, "Can you help me with the Geometry homework?"

"Yeah, we can do it together," Chase leads the way as they leave the room and head to the elevator.

Hearing those two talk about homework, made Bree remember how all week the teachers have been harping on her about missing homework assignments. Yeah, she hadn't really been doing it. It's only a matter of time before Davenport finds out.

"Wait up guys," Bree calls after them reluctantly, standing up, "I've got homework to do too," she groans.

On Friday night around seven, Bree gets a text from Justin simply saying he's there.

**Bree: **Ok give me a minute

"Alright," she stands up. She was hanging out with the boys in the game room upstairs. "I'm out."

Adam, who currently wasn't playing, looks up at her from his bean bag chair. "Where are you going?"

"It's a Friday night, Adam. I'm going out." And with that, Bree leaves the room.

Not so conveniently, Tasha and Mr. Davenport are in the living room with a movie on. Sloane is at the table drawing in her sketchpad with both of her headphones in.

Tasha notices her right away. "Bree, are you going out?"

"Yeah," Bree tries to smile innocently. So far, she's gotten away with going out without them knowing who exactly with.

Mr. Davenport pauses the movie. "Who are you going out with? Something's telling me it hasn't been Caitlin lately."

Bree sighs, "You're right. I've been hanging out with some new people to tell you the truth."

Although Bree isn't even paying any attention to Sloane, Sloane heard Bree's last sentence and looks up, taking out one of her headphones.

"Well it's been a couple weeks, Bree. Why haven't you had anyone over here?"

"I don't know," Bree mumbles. "I have to go," she turns to the door.

"Not so fast," Mr. Davenport stands. "I'm not so sure I want you going out with these people if we haven't even met any of them."

"Mr. Davenport," Bree turns back to him. "I'm sixteen—almost seventeen. I can take care of myself."

He turns and looks over at Sloane sitting at the table. She's already watching what's going on, so he makes eye contact with her. "Sloane, get over here. You're going with Bree."

"What?" she says annoyed. "I'm not even dressed."

"So go get dressed."

"Seriously?" Sloane says with a bit of sass. "You're going to send _me _to watch Bree. Me, of all the people that live in this house—the reason Bree's even dressed like that."

"Just go get dressed, Sloane. You're going with her."

"No, I'm in the middle of this drawing. And frankly, I don't want to see, hear, or talk to Megan."

"Who's Megan?"

"Sloane," Bree groans. "Go get dressed because you're coming if that's the only way I can go."

"_No_, I'm not." She looks at Mr. Davenport, "Make Chase go. _He's _the one you want watching your other kid."

"Sloane!" Bree says before super speeding over to her. She grabs Sloane's arm and uses a deep, intimidating voice, "You're coming," she growls.

Sloane pulls out of Bree's grip, "I don't want to."

"Too bad!" she's using her regular voice now.

"Why can't Chase go with you?!"

"Because _he_ would never fit in with them," Bree feels her phone vibrate in her back pocket. It's probably Justin.

Sloane pulls a smirk, "Fine," she stands, "I'll go with you." Right before Bree's eyes, she shape shifts into Chase and crosses her arms over her chest. "I'm ready."

"Mr. Davenport," Bree whines. "Make her change back. She can't go as Chase. And we have to hurry up."

Davenport, who sat back down on the couch, turns to look at them. She gives Sloane as Chase a once-over. "Sloane, you have to change back." He faces the TV again/

"Why?" Mr. Davenport hears Chase's voice behind him.

He turns back around, "Because you can't just go around impersonating people."

Sloane shifts back to herself, her arms still over her chest. Bree grabs her arm, "Let's go." Bree drags her outside, Sloane more annoyed than anything else. She's just in Chase's sweatshirt, red tank top underneath, black leggings, and her red chucks. She wouldn't normally leave the house like that—they're just her comfy clothes. Sloane spots Justin's car, not knowing who it even belongs to.

"Who's that?" Sloane asks and stops on the steps, no longer letting Bree pull her along.

"It's Justin, he's taking us to his house."

"Why couldn't he just meet Mr. Davenport? Then I wouldn't have to come."

"Because he's a boy, and I don't know if he'd check out with Mr. Davenport. Plus, I'm not going to torture him."

Sloane sighs and follows Bree down the rest of the steps to the car, getting in the back seat.

"Sorry, Justin," Bree says as she slides in the front and closes the door. "My dad threw a fit about me going out. So, this is Sloane; my chaperone for the night, apparently."

Sloane rolls her eyes as she looks out the window at the house, the house she wishes she was still in.

"Hi, Sloane," Justin says as he pulls away from the house.

"Hi," Sloane says in stubborn tone without looking at him. Her arms are again crossed over her chest.

"What grade are you in?" Justin asks Sloane, for a reason Sloane has no idea of.

"Tenth," Sloane answers like it was a stupid question.

"Nice, I'm a senior."

Sloane doesn't say anything and waits a few seconds before looking at the side of his face from behind Bree's seat. _He's actually not so mean,_ Sloane thinks to herself. _And kind of cute—not that I care._

Justin turns the music up a little, and now Sloane can make it out. It's Linkin Park, but Sloane doesn't recognize it. The rest of the way to wherever they were going, Sloane just wanted to open the door in the middle of the street and walk home. Justin and Bree just kept flirting with each other. She almost wanted to laugh at them.

Once they finally arrive at Justin's house, Sloane is the first one out.

"Welcome to my house," he walks backwards then turns around after locking the car with his keys. Sloane feels embarrassed in her outfit. Bree is all dressed bad girl cute with her shiny black doc martens and skater skirt. Justin's even got on nice black jeans and a blue jacket—which matches his blue high tops.

"When is everyone else coming?" Bree asks as she follows him inside.

"Any minute, I guess," he slides his keys into his jeans pocket. He awkwardly moves around Sloane to close the door behind her.

Bree casually sits down on a chair in Justin's living room. Sloane follows suit, sitting down on the edge of his couch.

"You don't live here alone, do you?" Sloane asks.

"Nah," Justin answers, sitting down on the other edge of the couch, "My mom and siblings are out for the night." He spreads his arms out over the arm and back of the couch.

Megan, Rodrick and Kendra come bursting through the door with a six pack in one of Megan's hands. "We're _here!_" She says, swinging her arms. Rodrick hands her the second six pack. She heads past everyone into Justin's dining room and sets the beer on the table. Kendra sits down in the last chair and Rodrick sits down in between Sloane and Justin.

"Hello, Sloane Mccarty. I've heard a lot about you," he says nonchalantly. Sloane looks from him to Bree, thinking that's where he's heard about her. "Oh, not from Bree." Now he looks away from Sloane and to Bree. "Why's she here, B?"

Sloane looks down at her lap, expecting to be called her 'chaperone' again. Bree hasn't even replied yet and Sloane's already annoyed at what she's going to say. "Because I brought her," Bree says with an attitude, surprising Sloane completely.

Rodrick nods, "I couldn't have guessed. I'm Rodrick, by the way," he looks at Sloane.

Dean walks in through the screen door now. The first thing he notices is Sloane sitting at the end of the couch. He looks kind of surprised. "Hi."

Sloane cracks a little smile, "Hi."

Megan's leaning on the archway separating the living room and the dining room, staring at Sloane. Sloane notices it, and stares back at her, ". . . Can I help you?"

Megan smiles, "Yeah," she flips her platinum blonde hair over her shoulder. "Come here."

Sloane stands and follows her back out into the dining room. Megan starts taking cans of beer out of the six pack. "I didn't know you were going to be here," she says quiet enough so that everyone else wouldn't be able to hear. Sloane can already hear them talking out there anyway.

"Neither did I," Sloane replies.

"I know you don't like me, Sloane."

"Yeah?"

Megan finally looks at her. They're about the same height, and Megan isn't wearing heals. "Yeah, and don't worry. I don't like you either."

As usual, Sloane has her confident, bitchy face on in a situation like this. "What? Jealous I get to live with Bree?"

Megan arches her eyebrows, trying to figure out what exactly Sloane's suggesting.

Sloane grabs a few loose beers off of the table, and goes back to the living room. She hands one to Dean first, who was standing in the archway. He smiles at her afterwards, then she hands one to Kendra. Megan walks through, handing a beer to Bree, then the rest of them. She settles down in the seat Sloane was sitting in before.

Bree drinks her beer awfully quick; in less than five minutes. Well, at least as quick as Megan and to be the first two to finish.

"Let's go get another, B," Sloane hops up. Bree follows her into the dining room past Sloane and Dean.

"I have to tell you something," Megan whispers to her.

Bree looks at Megan as she opens a second can.

"The reason I was being rude . . . well more rude than often," she chuckles, "Was because I was mad."

"About what?" Bree takes a sip of beer.

Megan looks down at her can of beer and taps the side with her nails. "Because I lied before. I . . . kind of like you, B." she looks at her.

_Ugh_, Bree thinks immediately. She was kind of getting interested in Justin. What kind of friend would she be to get involved when Megan liked her?

"I didn't want to date or anything," Megan laughs a little. "I don't do that."

Bree takes another sip, trying to stall. _What are you supposed to say at a time like this? _"I don't really know what to say, Megan. I'm entirely straight. I can't help it."

Megan shakes her head, "I just wanted to tell you the truth. It's no big deal though. I can tell you like Justin . . . so whatever if you want to be with him. He's probably the nicest person in this group aside from you."

"Well I don't really _like _him," Bree can't help but smile.

"You think he's cute or whatever," Megan smiles but rolls her eyes.

"Yeah," Bree takes another sip. She changes the subject, "How did you even get this beer?"

Megan shrugs, "Rodrick's brother works at the convenient store."

"Oh, that's cool."

"How come you brought her?" Megan asks, glancing over at the back of Sloane's head.

"My dad made me bring her since he hasn't met any of you. He's ridiculous."

Megan laughs. "If I were him, I'd make that nerdy one come with you. Sloane's more likely to join in the fun than stop it."

Bree laughs, "Hey, watch what you say about my brother, but yeah. I know."

"My bad," Megan says about the nerdy thing.

"Are you sure about the Justin thing, Megan?"

"Yes," she scoffs. "I'm _already_ over it."

Bree smiles, "Okay. You think he likes me, though?"

Megan raises an eyebrow, but still has a smile on her face. "It's obvious."

Bree smiles then looks over at Sloane as she drinks her beer. She's actually _laughing _at something someone said.

Bree and Sloane go back into the living room and Bree walks over towards Justin, and sits down carefully on the arm of the couch. Someone put on music while she and Megan were in the dining room.

Justin smirks at her after she sits. "That doesn't look so comfortable, B."

Bree shrugs, "I'm alright. It's not like there's any open spots." Sloane took the spot where she was sitting before, Megan was back in Sloane's old spot, and Dean was on the arm on Kendra's chair, talking to her.

"What are you talking about? There's one more," Justin nods, still smirking.

Bree arches her eyebrows, glancing around the room for this so called open spot.

Justin wraps his right arm around Bree's waist, "Right here, B," he pulls her onto his lap. She almost spills the beer in her hand, giggling. Justin takes a sip of his own and keeps his hand on Bree's hip as they sit together and listen to the music.

Notes: Whoa long chapter...that's a good thing right? :) I hope you liked it! Sorry this chapter took a while, but this weekend was my sister's birthday so we had quite a bit going on. Anyway, what do you guys think about Bree and Justin? Do you hope they get together or no? Let me know what you think.


	10. Chapter 10

On Sunday afternoon, Bree is watching TV in the living room when the doorbell rings. She mutes the TV and opens the door.

Megan is standing before her, "Hey, B." She smiles.

"_Hey._"

Megan walks in with a grocery bag in her right hand.

"No offense, but what are you doing here?" Bree closes the front door. She kind of wishes Megan didn't randomly show up. Sunday is her lazy clothes day. She's in yoga pants a sweatshirt with her hair in a bun. She's also not wearing any makeup.

"Well, I thought I'd come meet your dad," she swings the grocery bag. "So then Sloane doesn't have to come again."

Bree raises her eyebrows. "You're here to meet my dad."

Megan nods. Bree isn't so sure it's a great idea. Megan looks how she usually does—very dark makeup, black painted nails, rock band shirt, leather pants and lacy combat boots. To Bree, she looks like she should have a 'parental advisory' sticker on her forehead.

"What's in the bag?"

"It's a surprise. But first, wears your dad?"

Mr. Davenport walks in just then. "I heard the doorbell," he says right before he notices Megan and Bree standing in the middle of the room.

Bree nervously crosses her arms over her chest.

"Bree, are you going to introduce me?"

"This is Megan."

"Hi, nice to meet you," Mr. Davenport puts his hand out. "You can call me Mr. Davenport."

"Nice to meet you too," Megan shakes his hand with a smile. Bree thinks to herself_, who are you and what have you done with Megan?! _Other than the appearance, Megan is acting totally parent likeable.

"What are you two up to?"

"Homework!" Bree blurts, "Lots and lots of homework."

Mr. Davenport raises an eyebrow. "Right. We'll go ahead and pretend I believe that." He starts walking towards the elevator across the room.

"Aren't you going to show me your room, B?" Megan asks.

Bree gives a nervous smile, "Mr. Davenport!"

He turns, "What?"

"Is Sloane here?"

He shakes his head, "She and Kitana went to the fair."

"The fair?"

"Yeah, the fair is in town. Didn't you know?"

"No . . . whatever, it doesn't matter."

Mr. Davenport shrugs and gets onto the elevator.

"My room is up here," she starts going up the stairs and Megan follows her. Bree goes into Sloane's room, pretending like it hers. "Here it is," she gestures with her hands. "Now let's go back downstairs," she grabs Megan's arm, about to pull her out.

"Wait," Megan stops her. "What's that?" She points to Sloane's capsule with her free hand.

Bree hadn't thought of that. "That's my, um . . . shower!"

Megan takes a step closer, "Are you serious?"

"Yeah," she laughs, "That's what rich people do, we buy crazy things!" She laughs again.

Megan looks at her, "What's so funny?"

Bree's smile fades as Megan sits down on Sloane's ottoman.

Bree sits down next to her unenthusiastically. "Alright, _what_ is in the bag?"

Megan smirks and pulls something out of the bag. She holds it up so Bree can see. It's a box of hair dye. The color is _Fiery Red_; it looks like the shade of red velvet cake.

"What's that for?"

"Your hair. Don't you think it'd be hot?"

Bree looks at it with an unsure face.

"Come on," Megan tries to convince her. "I bet Justin would _love_ it."

Bree grabs the box out of her hand and looks it over. "What makes you think that?"

"Justin loves unnatural hair colors on girls. His last girlfriend had blue hair."

Bree looks away from the box and at Megan, dubious.

"Seriously."

Bree looks back down at the box, trying to envision herself with _fiery red _hair. Bree locks her eyes with Megan's. "Let's do it." Megan smiles in response.

Bree leads the way to one of the many bathrooms in the house, this one across from Sloane's room.

Bree sits down on the toilet seat with the lid down. "Have you ever done this before?"

"Sure," Megan says, opening the box and putting the gloves on her hands. She pulls out her phone before going any further and puts her music on shuffle at low volume.

"Do I have to wet my hair or something?" Bree asks.

"Nope, you wash the dye out _after_."

"Right."

Megan pulls a translucent bottle from the box with this white substance that looks like lotion inside of it. Next, she adds a dark red liquid from a vile to the white lotion looking stuff and puts the top of the bottle on. Megan starts shaking it to get the mixture all blended together. Once it's all red, it looks pretty bright.

"It's not going to look like that in my hair right?" Bree looks anxiously at the bottle.

"Not at all. Especially since your hair is mostly brown." Megan picks up the bottle like she's ready to go. "Ready?"

Bree nods.

Forty minutes later, after Megan does Bree's whole head and it's time to rinse the dye out, Bree is totally eager.

Bree bends over and puts her hair in the sink so Megan can rinse it. Bree can see the red dye running down the drain.

"Okay, I think I got all of it out," Megan says. "Do you want me to blow dry it?"

Bree lifts her head up and looks in the mirror. It looks dark red, but it's still wet. "Yeah . . . do it."

At the fair, Sloane insisted on going on the Ferris wheel, considering she's never even been on one. Well . . . she's never even been to a fair anyway. As they're on the Ferris wheel, Kitana is telling Sloane about something.

"Do you know who Shelby is?" Kitana asks her.

"I don't know any Shelbys," Sloane answers as she looks down at the rest of the fair from the top of the ride.

"I met her when I came here. And she seemed totally cool at first, right? Well she's a total bitch."

Sloane looks at her now, "What happened?"

"I don't even know," Kitana shakes her head. "She _acts _as if I did something to her."

"Did you?"

Kitana glares at Sloane, "No, Sloane. I didn't."

Sloane looks away from her and takes a sip of her cherry ICEE.

"Sorry for snapping. I'm just . . . mad."

"If she's a bitch and doesn't like you, screw her. Who cares?"

"I do, because I was friends with that whole little clique and now not one of them will talk to me."

"Isn't that a little . . ."

"Middle school?"

"Yes, _and_ mean girl."

"Mean girl?"

"You know . . . like 'if you hate her so do I.'"

"True."

"Is this 'clique' all female?"

"You guessed it."

"Well they act like it."

Once Sloane and Kitana get off the Ferris wheel, Sloane glances over at the Cotton Candy stand. As she's about to look away, she thinks she sees someone she knows. Well, knew two years ago. She thought she saw Travis, the boy she lived with for a bit while she was on her own before running away from there too. Just thinking she might of saw him gives her a chill down her spine. But when she looks back, she doesn't see the guy—whoever exactly he was—anywhere.

"Sloane, are you coming?"

Sloane looks at Kitana, "Oh, yeah. Where do you want to go? We probably have time for one more ride or two more games."

"I want to go on the Blizzard again before we go."

Sloane catches up with Kitana, "Okay, Let's go do it then. I have to be back by six, remember."

"Why do you have to be back at six, anyway?"

"Their Grandma Rose is coming for dinner."

All of a sudden, Sloane sees Kitana being pulled back out of the corner of her eye. Following that, Kitana shrieks, "Ow!"

Sloane whips her head around and sees Kitana holding her left ear. She pulls away her hand and it's covered in blood. Sloane's eyes widen and then she looks over at the group of four girls standing close in front of them. T

"What the hell?!" Sloane shouts. She's _guessing_ this is the group of girls they were just talking about. Sloane sees Kitana's loop earring on the ground. Shelby or whoever it was pulled her earring right out of her ear and now it was bleeding like crazy. People at the fair are crowded around them, but no one is getting involved.

"Honestly!" Kitana gives Shelby a good shove, not bothering to wipe the blood off her hand first.

Shelby looks at her shoulder, "Gross!" She shoves Kitana back. Sloane's surprised at Shelby. She never would've guessed by appearance that Shelby was someone Kitana would hang out with. And frankly, Shelby acts very . . . well, high school.

"_What _is your problem, Shelby?!" Kitana gives her yet another shove, harder this time. She bumps into one of her friends behind her.

The girl she bumps into steps closer, "Watch it, Kitana!"

Sloane pushes _her_, "You watch it, minion!"

Shelby gets in Sloane's face, "Don't shove her, side hoe!"

"What?!" Sloane looks appalled and a bit confused.

"I don't know _what _your guys' problem is, but leave her out of it!" Kitana intervenes.

Sloane is getting a strong urge to shape shift into the freaking hulk if things get any worse and go ballistic on these girls. With no warning, Kitana takes a punch to the chin from Shelby.

Kitana is immediately on her. "Kitana, stop!" Sloane says, trying to stop the fight. It's four against two, and Sloane is smart enough to realize it. However, Sloane gets pulled in anyway when the 'minion' from before attacks her. Soon enough, there are two of these girls on each of them.

Sloane ends up getting home fifteen minutes late. When she walks in the front door, everyone is already sitting at the dinner table eating, including Grandma Rose. They immediately look over at her.

"Sloane!" Mr. Davenport stands and walks over to her. "What happened to _you_?" He tilts her chin up so he can get a good look. She has a black eye that isn't horrible, but is still very noticeable. She kicked ass back at the fair, but she couldn't help still getting hit.

"Some girls . . . started a fight with Kitana at the fair. I couldn't just let them beat her up!" Sloane looks past him now and at everyone at the table. Chase gets up and walks over too now, immediately grabbing Sloane's head to look at her eye.

"_Tell _me you put the other girls in the hospital," he says, anger creeping up into his tone.

Sloane chuckles, "Trust me, they look ten times worse than I do."

"That is not a good thing, Sloane," Mr. Davenport says. "I can't believe you got into a fight."

Sloane can't _believe_ him. "I'm really fine and I had to stand up for my friend."

"You should be happy she's okay," Bree says from across the room, causing Sloane to look over.

"Your hair!" Sloane walks past Mr. Davenport and Chase and towards Bree.

"Do you like it?" Bree smiles.

"I love it. That color looks really good on you."

Bree laughs, "Thanks."

Sloane takes her seat next to Bree now, and makes eye contact with Grandma Rose. "Hey, Rose," Sloane forces a smile.

She sighs, "Hello, Sloane."

Sloane can hear the disappointment in her tone, but she doesn't really care. _I was defending Kitana, and I don't regret that one bit_, she thinks.

Notes: Alright. So apparently, Selena Gomez is in an upcoming movie with the same title as my fanfic. Because of this, I might be changing the title of this to Mindless Behavior-just so you know. Anyway, let me know what you guys think about the new chapter. I wonder what Justin will think about Bree being a redhead now . . . ;)


	11. Chapter 11

After dinner with Grandma Rose, Chase and Sloane sneak off to a different part of the house. For the record, Rose has been against their relationship since she found out. They go upstairs into the video game room and play a few rounds of Mortal Kombat, the game Sloane always insists on playing. Chase pauses it before they start a new fight—Sloane as Mileena and Chase as Sub-Zero.

"What?" Sloane says, looking at Chase.

"It's time for you to tell me exactly what happened at this fight."

"Why?"

"Because I want to know. . ."

Sloane moves in her bean bag chair so that she's facing him. "Basically, there's these girls that used to befriend Kitana but now they're giving her trouble," she speaks fast. "We ran into them at the fair out of nowhere and they picked a fight with us. I had to stand up for Kitana, you know? And I wasn't just going to let them beat Cherry ICEE out of me . . . so I fought back, obviously, even though it was two against four."

"Two against four? There were _four _girls?"

"Yes, that's what I said and I'm bionic Chase, hello. Anyway, we were going at it—I was totally dominating of course—until I saw the security people coming and that's when I got Kitana's attention and bolted."

"Those girls just let you run away?"

"They probably figured it out and left too. No one wants to end up in a holding cell. Can we go back to the game now?" Sloane starts pushing her pause button repeatedly, even though Chase is the only when who can unpause it.

"That's it?" Chase says doubtfully.

"Yeah . . . why would I lie to you? I'll tell you one thing though. This fight was weird—unrestrained. Those girls were total savages, trying to roll around on the muddy ground instead handling things while standing up. It wasn't like the fighting we do when we train for missions."

Chase laughs, "Because they're rowdy kids. Remember when I fought Trent?"

"Yeah, I remember when Spike fought Trent" Sloane shrugs. "Remember when Spike fought Trent and you actually remembered it?"

"How could I forget?"

"Shut up. How did that even happen, anyway? Did you ever ask Mr. Davenport?"

"No," Chase snorts. "What am I going to say? 'We threw a surprise party for Sloane behind your back while she and Bree where grounded and a fight went down. I turned into Spike then remembered the entire thing. _Any idea why_?'" Chase gives her a look like it was a stupid question.

"Right," Sloane looks away from him.

"I think it was . . . because of the certain situation we were in."

Sloane looks back at him now, but he's not looking at her. He's looking down at his remote controller.

"I care about you so much, so I think my subconscious mind was just able to stay aware."

Sloane's lips curve into a smile. "Ch_ase_."

Chase looks at her, smiling as well. "What?"

Sloane leans closer and kisses him on the lips. When it's over, she stays close to his face. "I love you."

Chase smiles and kisses her again, just a peck this time. "Love you too."

It's Monday, and Bree is on her way to the cafeteria for lunch when she bumps into Justin.

"B? I was looking for you. What happened to your hair?" Justin blurts out, raising an eyebrow.

Bree can't help but get a huge smile across her face. "Do you like it?"

"Stop standing in the middle of the hallway," some guy says and bumps into Justin intentionally.

Justin turns and shouts, "Make me!" after the guy as he walks away.

"Um, Justin?" Bree tries to regain his attention.

"Uh . . . yeah, I guess I like it. I liked your hair before better though."

"Really?" Bree feels like she just got slapped. "Megan said you liked unnatural hair colors on girls . . ."

Justin chuckles, "Why would she say that?" He raises an eyebrow again, now pulling a smirk. "And why would you care?"

She ignores the last part, "You mean you _don't _like unnatural hair colors?"

Justin looks past Bree, "Not really. I kind of hate that."

Bree's mouth falls open a little.

"But you know what? This dark red isn't crazy," he reaches forward and carefully tucks a strand behind her ear. "You're kind of making me reconsider that opinion."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Justin smiles, a genuine one. "You wanna go grab lunch?"

"You mean like . . . leave the school?"

"Yeah. We're allowed to do that, you know."

Bree shakes her head, "Yeah, I know. Let's go. I'd love to get out of here for a bit."

Justin nods his head to the main entrance/exit. "Cool."

Bree and Justin hop in the car once they find Justin's. "Where do you want to go?"

"To be honest . . . any fast food place," Bree states.

"Seriously?" Justin puts the keys in the ignition.

"Completely," Bree laughs. "My family never gets that stuff."

"Why not?" He starts pulling out.

"Um . . . My dad's all about the healthy stuff."

"Oh. Burger King's the closest to here. Is that okay?"

"Yes, sounds great."

Justin turns on his music now. This one, Bree recognizes. It's _Problem_ by Ariana Grande. Bree immediately looks at Justin.

"Is that the radio?" she asks.

Justin's hand never came off the on button. He laughs in embarrassment. ". . . not technically." He looks away, having to watch where he's driving now.

"You like Ariana Grande?"

Justin smiles again, obviously embarrassed. "Don't tell anyone. The guys, Megan and Kendra would give me hell."

Bree smiles and looks at the side of Justin's face. "Don't sweat it. I like her too." She leans forward and turns it up a few notches.

They reach Burger King before the song is even over, so Justin turns it down to a bare minimum. "What do you want, Babe?" He calls her that nonchalantly, making Bree try not to think much of it. On the inside however, her stomach is doing somersaults.

"A cheeseburger. With fries. And a chocolate milkshake."

"All good choices," Justin says and finally pulls into the drive thru. He orders the same thing for himself as Bree besides the fact that he gets a medium and orders Bree a small. After Justin pays for it and gets the food, he hands the bag to Bree. "Don't start yet."

"Why _not_?"

"I'm taking you somewhere."

"Where's that?"

"I'm not going to be one of those '_it's a surprise_' guys," he laughs. "It's a nice day. Let's just go to the park."

Bree looks down at the bag, smiling stupidly. _This guy is so cute_, she thinks. Not just about his looks, but his personality and the way he talks and how he acts.

Once they get to the park, they decide not to go sit on the grass, instead just sitting on the hood of Justin's car.

"Watch those boots," Justin says, looking at them as Bree pulls herself up on the hood. "I don't want scruff marks on my car."

Bree rolls her eyes and smiles, "Don't worry.

"Why are you so smiley?" Justin says, smiling too now.

"Because . . . I don't know," Bree can't help but smile wider now. "Answer a question of mine first."

"Why should I?" Justin says, handing her the smaller box of fries. "I asked you first."

"Because . . ."

"Because, because," says Justin, imitating her.

"My question is . . . how are you so cute and nice? Being a part of the 'group' and all . . ." Bree fills her mouth with a couple French fries.

Justin laughs. "Don't you mean—why are you such a bad boy, Justin?"

"Not exactly," Bree looks at him now. "You're too sweet to be in the group, is what I mean. Everyone else is so mean."

Justin swallows a bite of his food. "I could say the same to you, B." He takes a drink of his chocolate milkshake now. "Truth is, I'm nice you. When it comes to business, I act a lot different." He takes a bite of his burger.

"Business?"

"You know . . . bad boy stuff."

Bree chuckles and shakes her head, "Whatever." Her phone chimes in her back pocket so she pulls it out.

**Megan: **Did u go home early?

**Bree: **Nope. Im with Justin

"Who's that?"

"Just Megan."

"Gotcha," Justin nods, take another swig of his milkshake.

"Do you mind?"

"Not as long as you make it quick."

"Gotcha," Bree says, looking up from her phone and making eye contact with him as she flashes a flirtatious smile. Justin smiles back before she looks back down at her phone.

**Megan: **ur skipping without me?!

**Bree: **were not skipping. And btw he just LOVES my hair

Bree didn't need to tell Megan she had to go, because Megan stopped texting her after that. When Justin and Bree were both done, Justin walked over and threw their trash away. Now, they're both still sitting on the hood of the car, Justin leaning against the windshield.

Bree pulls herself closer and rests back next to Justin as he follows suit and puts his arm around her so she has a place to lean her head.

"Can this be a date?" Bree asks.

Justin chuckles, "Hell yes."

"And then afterwards, he said _hell yes_ when I asked if it could be a date," Bree says, telling Sloane about her lunch with Justin as they walk home. They're walking extra slow so they lag quite far behind the boys.

"Oh my gosh," Sloane squeals, excited for Bree. "But are you sure about this guy? Isn't he like, a _bad boy_?"

"You're a bad _girl_, Sloane, and I'm best friends with you."

Sloane rolls her eyes even though Bree can't see. "Ha, ha."

"But he's not even. Not _even_! He's a total sweetheart cutie."

"Is that so?" Sloane shoves her hands in the tiny front pockets of black skinny jeans.

"Why do you say it like that?"

"I saw you two when I was practically _dragged_ to his house."

Bree exhales in annoyance, "So I sat on his lap. It's not a big deal. You've met him personally so admit it. He's so nice."

"Yes, I admit he seems nice, but there _must _be a reason as to why he's in that little group of yours."

Sloane's statement about Justin triggers something in Bree, like she might be right. Maybe there _is_ something bad she doesn't know about Justin. Bree pushes it away immediately, "Stop, just be happy for me. I'm _finally _moving on from Owen."

"I _am_ happy for you, Breebie," Sloane tugs at her arm.

"Good." Bree says, but the thought from before won't go away. She can't help but wonder now, _what if Justin's hiding something?_

"Bree?"

"Yeah?"

"I know this might be weird, since Chase is your brother and all," Sloane starts.

"Oh gosh—please don't."

"Bree, please. You're my best friend and I need to talk to you about this."

"Fine, what?" Bree gives in, entirely unhappy about it.

"I still love him and all, but I've just been thinking lately . . ."

"Oh, quit beating around the bush. Just say it," Bree says this half being real and half wanting to get the conversation over with.

"O_kay_. I don't know why we're even together."

"What?!" Bree shouts too-loudly. Sloane sees Leo turn his head to look back at them from ahead for a second.

"Just listen, okay? I don't even know what we have in common . . . I like to draw, he likes to read. He's basically a mathematician, and I can't even do a long division problem to save my life. I like not picking up after myself, and he's a neat freak. I can't even figure out how we've been together for almost five months."

"Sloane, that's _why _you two are so great together. He can sit there and read about quantum physics while you draw your little artworks. He helps you with school, which keeps his nerd in check. You bring the best out in each other."

"Bree, that is so sweet. You seriously think that? I thought you hated the fact we're dating."

"I don't _hate_ it. And while we're on the topic, you two do have things in common. Video games, scary movies, you both like _Spiderman_," she laughs.

"I guess," says Sloane, not entirely convinced.

"You know what they say," Bree raises an eyebrow. "_Opposites attract_."

Notes: Oh my gosh. Are Bree and Justin cute or what?! And do you think he _is_ hiding something? And what about Sloane's doubt about her and Chase's relationship . . . let me know what you guys think :)


	12. Chapter 12

During Trig on Tuesday, Bree and Sloane partner up to go over homework. They haven't talked since the texts yesterday.

"We both know I _didn't _do the homework," Megan turns to Bree and says. She acts like she never even lied to Bree about the hair thing.

"Yeah," says Bree, "I know.

"Look at that," Megan smirks as she reaches for Bree's homework on the top of her desk. "You really did it."

"Yeah, I did it," Bree scoffs, looking Megan over. She looks tired and dazed. " The end of the school year is just a couple months away and I don't plan on being grounded this summer over something as stupid as missing homework assignments."

"Fair enough," Megan tosses the packet back on the top of Bree's desk. She's clearly noticing Bree's mood. "So, why are you so pissy?"

Bree raises an eyebrow. "You totally sabotaged me."

"What?"

"You obviously knew Justin doesn't like crazy hair colors on girls, and you lead me into thinking he did. And what about that random ex-girlfriend you made up about having blue hair?"

"With all the ex-girlfriends he does have, I'm surprised none of them _actually _had blue hair," Megan says coldly.

It hurts Bree to hear this, but she ignores it immediately. "Oh, please, Megan. Why should I trust anything you say about him now? And why are you even saying this crap? Oh, wait. I know. It's actually super obvious," she inches closer in her chair to Megan. "You're trying to sabotage my relationship with Justin, because you still have a huge, raging, _lesbian _crush on me."

"Girls," Mrs. Bailey is directly to Bree's left all of a sudden. "How about we stick to the homework assignment?" She must not have heard what Bree just said. Megan and Bree don't take their eyes off each other. Megan's facial expression hasn't changed one bit.

"_Or _do you have to be separated?"

Bree finally breaks the eye contact with Megan and looks up at Mrs. Bailey. "What are we? Third graders?" She says in an entirely bratty tone.

Mrs. Bailey raises her eyebrows. "There's an open seat over there, Bree. Why don't go take it?"

"You know what?" Bree looks back at Megan with a smile. She still hasn't moved an inch. "I would _love _to go sit over there." Bree packs her stuff up and heads across the room to the front seat all the way to the right.

After sitting down, she turns her neck to glance over at Megan. She's already looking at Bree, gripping her necklace with one of her hands. Her facial expression the same as it's been since Bree said what she did.

Once class is over, Bree stands and starts walking to the cafeteria for lunch, planning on sitting in her regular spot. Megan's not Justin, Kendra, Dean or Rodrick. Her little dispute with Megan has nothing to do with them, so she's not going to ditch because of Megan being a brat.

When she reaches the cafeteria, Kendra, Dean and Justin are all sitting already. As Bree passes her _old _regular table, she smiles and waves at her brothers and Sloane. Sloane smiles extra big back, probably trying to drag Bree in so that she would sit with them instead of the group. Bree keeps walking and sits down next to Justin.

"It's nice to see _you _again," Kendra smiles. Bree smiles back. "You wouldn't believe Megan yesterday at lunch—total piss-pot."

"Really?" Bree says, pulling her paper bag lunch out then setting her bag over the edge of the back of her chair.

Kendra nods, taking a bite of her cafeteria mac and cheese.

"Get real, guys. When is Megan not a piss-pot?" Dean chimes in. He's most likely still holding a grudge over Megan always bringing up Carson, his cheating ex-girlfriend.

Bree doesn't know what to say, and she's contemplating letting them know about the fight they just had last period.

"She is kind of always mad, isn't she?" says Justin.

Kendra and Bree make eye contact with each other. It's obvious they're feeling the same way about this conversation. Bree looks away, and begins opening her lunch.

After five minutes, neither Megan nor Rodrick have shown up to eat.

"Where are those two?" Kendra says. Bree's already thinking it has something to do with last period. _I pushed it way too far_, Bree thinks, _I can't believe I even said the lesbian thing._

Bree crumples up her napkin in her hand and pushes her chair back from the table. "I'm going to go look for them." She stands.

"What if they left the school?" Kendra shakes her head.

"Well I can at least look around."

Justin looks up at her, "That'll take forever. You have to finish eating." _Hah_, thinks Bree, _I've got super speed, honey._

"If I don't find them in five minutes, I'll just come back, alright?" Bree starts walking away before anyone can answer, leaving her lunch and bag behind.

Once she's out of the cafeteria, she begins super speeding around the empty halls looking for them. She gives up, settling in the corner of one of the halls to take a moment to think. Just as she's crossing her arms over her chest, she notices movement through one of the classroom door windows. It's Megan and Rodrick, and Megan's _crying_. Without even thinking it through, Bree bursts through the door. Megan and Rodrick look up right away, Megan trying to wipe away the tears and running mascara.

"Megan, I'm sorry, okay?!" Bree shouts. "I was way out of line, and I didn't mean what I said. But you kind of owe me an apology too," Bree trails off.

Rodrick looks at Megan, "What is she talking about?" He has his arm around her, and has ever since Bree found them.

"Bree, I don't give a shit about your idiocy back in Trig. The reason I'm crying has nothing to do with you, Regina George."

"Then why are you—"

"None of your damn business, _Bree_!"

Bree steps back, and heads straight out of the room. Megan had never actually called her Bree before now.

She super speeds back to the cafeteria, stopping right at the entrance. She slips in the room and goes back to their table, sitting down. She can't believe Megan. _She_'s the one who started this whole thing.

"Did you find them?" Justin asks.

"Um, no," Bree lies. "I just gave up."

After school, Sloane drags Chase with her to this Art class Mr. Davenport is paying for. "I really don't want to go alone," she told Chase.

"Why don't you ask Kitana or someone?" Chase whined.

"Because I want _you _to come," Sloane said.

"Fine," he finally gave in, and now they're sitting in this art room at the Community center, waiting for the class to start. The tables in the room are set in a horseshoe shape, and Chase and Sloane are on the left side.

"I can't believe you brought me here," Chase whispers to Sloane as he looks around the room. There are probably about ten other kids in the room, but Chase doesn't resemble any of them. They all look artsy and remind him of Sloane. He just looks like a sore thumb in his plaid shirt.

"Stop, this is going to be so fun," Sloane says excitedly.

"Hello, everyone," a young red headed woman at the front of the room gets everyone's attention. She looks like she's about thirty. "You guys can call me Theresa. I'm the art supervisor," she smiles. "Today I've got some canvases and acrylics for you to work with. Paint whatever you feel, and get some passion in there."

Chase is already dying of boredom. He glances to his left at Sloane, who's got a small smile on her face from just _listening_ to Theresa talk about painting. After seeing her face, he turns back to Theresa, forcing himself to get through this for Sloane, since that's what she wants.

"The paints are in the back of the room with the brushes behind you," Theresa points to the counter in the back of the room. "And the canvases are up here," she sets her pointer finger on the tall table in front of her."

"Go ahead and get started. Oh, and don't forget to grab some water. The bowls are also in the back with the paint."

Chase refrains from rolling his eyes. Other teenagers are getting up and grabbing either paint or a canvas.

Sloane turns to him, "You go grab us two canvases and I'll go get us paint."

Chase nods without looking at her, and gets up. Sloane walks to the back of the room and grabs a Styrofoam tray for her and Chase to share. She waits in line behind some guy with blonde hair, a black hoodie, and black jeans. He looks seventeen or eighteen, and quite a bit taller than Sloane. "Welcome to the class," he says to her.

Sloane looks a little confused. "I thought today was the first day."

"Oh it is," the boy says. "But you haven't been here before. I'm in this class every year."

Sloane nods, "Oh."

The boy takes his right hand off the tray and reaches it over to shake Sloane's hand. "I'm Logan; art supervisor's son."

Sloane's first thought is _Theresa has a son this old?! How old is she?_ She shakes his hand, "Sloane." His hand is rough with calluses.

"Sorry about my hand," he says. "My specialty isn't painting. I'm a woodcarver."

Sloane's eyes light up. "That's so cool. My specialty isn't painting either. I draw—pretty boring compared to your thing."

"I'll be the judge of that—after I see some of your work."

It's Logan's turn to squirt some paint onto his tray. He squirts on some red. "Red suit your fancy?" he asks Sloane.

She chuckles, "Yes." He squirts some on for her.

After Sloane gets the primary colors onto her tray and grabs a couple brushes, she heads back over to hers and Chase's table.

"Who's that guy you were talking to?" Chase asks as she sets the paint tray down in between them.

Sloane doesn't even want to answer him. She gets back and immediately gets bombarded? She hesitates, "I just met him. He's Theresa's son. His name's Logan."

Chase looks at her now with a surprised look.

"I know," Sloane hands him a paint brush.

Chase takes it and starts mixing red and blue to make purple. He acts like he does this on a regular basis, kind of annoying Sloane. Then, she remembers he's a genius. He'd know how to do anything she threw at him.

"What am I even supposed to paint?" Chase says.

Sloane smirks, "Anything you want."

"What I _want_ is to be at home."

Although this irritates her, Sloane ignores it. "Then paint yourself at home," she tries to sound perfectly happy.

Chase doesn't answer, so Sloane concentrates on her painting. She's going to paint an abstract painting. She doesn't want to do anything too complicated; she's never even actually painted before. Well, not _real_ painting with acrylics and a canvas. She dips her brush into Chase's purple, starting with that. When she needs a new color, she glances across the room to where Logan is sitting. She sees him dip his brush in that red when he looks up at her. He smiles crookedly at her, and Sloane smiles back.

Chase groans beside her, "I can't do this."

Sloane looks at his canvas. She can tell it's supposed to be their living room, but someone who didn't know what he was painting may not even know it's supposed to _be _a living room.

"Come on, just keep going. You're getting somewhere."

"No, I'm not. This is horrible," he complains. "This is so stupid, seriously."

_That's it,_ Sloane thinks and turns to him. "Then just leave," she snaps. "I don't even want you here anymore."

"Sloane, I didn't—"

"Just go, Chase. _You_ don't even want to be here," Sloane interrupts him without looking away from her canvas. After a few seconds, Chase gets up and leaves the room without another word.

Sloane feels a lump in her throat, but she just keeps painting.

"Alright, kids," Sloane hears Theresa say. "You should go ahead and start picking up now, it's almost four."

Sloane looks up and around the room, surprised how fast the hour went by. She glances next to her, where Chase left his ruined canvas, water and wet paintbrush. She picks the brush up and sets both her brush and his on the paint tray and stands up to go cover it.

"I hope you all finished." Theresa says. "Next week we're doing something different." Sloane looks at her this time as she walks by her desk. She was painting too. Because Sloane was looking at Theresa, she almost bumps into Logan.

"Whoa," Logan says. "Need a little help there?"

"Oops, sorry," Sloane says flustered. "But yeah. Do you think you could go grab the water cups off my table?"

"Sure," Logan says, walking past her. He meets back up with her in the back of the room while pouring the paint water into the sink. "Where did your friend go, anyway?"

"He doesn't like art. Not at _all_ apparently," Sloane says without looking at Logan. She doesn't bother correcting him about Chase being her boyfriend.

"No worries. The rest of us here _do_," he smiles at her. Is this guy always so positive?

"Can I see your painting?"

"Yeah, but it's not so great," he starts walking towards his table. The girl who was next to him is just leaving, "Bye, Liv," he says to her.

"See you tonight," she winks at him before walking away.

"Here it is," he walks behind his painting. Sloane stands next to him. His painting is also abstract like her own, but completely different. He used all warm colors and random shapes.

"I really like it," she smiles.

"Thanks. Can I see yours?" Logan asks.

"I guess," Sloane leads the way. Almost everyone else is out of the room. Logan scans Sloane's canvas for a bit.

"This is so cool," he smiles. "A hundred times better than mine." Sloane's painting is black purple, and blue, the colors mashing together in an abstract cloud.

"I don't know," Sloane shrugs. "This is the first time I've ever _actually_ done a painting."

"Are you serious?" He looks at her, genuinely surprised. Sloane nods. "Well, drawing isn't your only art-related talent, Miss."

Sloane smiles, "Thanks, Logan."

"Um, sorry, but what's your name again? I'm really bad at names."

Sloane chuckles, "My name's Sloane."

"Sloane," he repeats.

"Now I get to ask you something."

"It'd only be fair."

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen—closer to fifteen, however."

"What?" Sloane's eyes widen. "You look, like . . . seventeen."

"I get that a lot. And how old are you?"

"Sixteen," Sloane grabs her painting, careful not to get any _more_ paint on her fingers,

"Logan, honey," Theresa says. It appears that everyone else has left. "We've got to go."

"Mom, this is Sloane," Logan walks towards her.

"Nice to meet you, Sloane," Theresa smiles. "I hope you had fun today for your first session."

"Yeah I did," Sloane smiles back, following Logan.

"Great. I don't want to rush you out, but I have to lock the room."

"No, it's fine. I have to go too," she walks out the doorway first.

"Do you need a ride?" Logan asks from behind her.

"Oh, no, my," Sloane stops speaking. She was literally about to say her dad was probably already there. "My ride's probably already here," she recovers quickly. The three of them are now outside, in front of the parking lot. "Yeah, there he is."

"Okay, see you next week, I hope." Logan waves goodbye to her.

"You will!" Sloane calls after him with a smile.

Notes: Oh snap. Bree and Megan got in another fight. _And_ so did Chase and Sloane. I wonder if Logan will be there to comfort her . . . that is, if Sloane decides to tell him the truth about her and Chase . . .


	13. Chapter 13

On Wednesday, Megan runs into Bree first thing at school.

"Hi," Megan says, getting Bree's attention.

"Megan," Bree replies without looking at her. She pulls out a couple books then slams her locker shut. She faces Megan.

"I'm sorry," Megan exhales. "Sorry for convincing you to die your hair a color I thought Justin wouldn't like. Sorry for being rude to you about him. Sorry for yelling at you yesterday at—"

"I get it," Bree interrupts. "I accept your apology."

"I accept your apology too, from yesterday. You were wrong though."

"Then why did you—"

"I was trying to protect you, B."

"From what?" Bree looks nervous.

"From Justin."

"You said he was the nicest guy in our group!"

"He is, but like I also said, he's dated a lot of girls. And there's a lot of things you don't know about him."

"Megan it's not like I'm getting married to him and we're not even together. We went on _one _date."

"Maybe you should keep it that way."

"Why, Megan? Just tell me if there's something I should know about him."

"Fine," Megan gives Bree a serious look. "I'm just gonna say it."

"So say it."

Megan lowers her voice to a whisper and leans closer to Bree. "Three years ago, when Justin was a freshman, he was kidnapped. For like, a week."

"Are you serious?" Bree whispers, a look of concern covering her face.

Megan nods twice.

"How do you even know?" Bree asks, growing skeptical.

"Rodrick told me," she says as if _he's _actually a reliable source.

"How does _he_ know?" Bree says looking for a crack, hoping none of this is actually true.

"Because Dean told him."

Bree tilts her head at Megan, clearly agitated.

"Dean was with Justin in freshman year. They're in the same grade, that's how he knows."

"_Okay_ . . . so what supposedly happened to Justin while he was kidnapped?"

"Be quieter," Megan urges.

"And just for the record, all three of you are horrible friends going around telling everyone this when obviously he doesn't want people to know."

"We're not going around telling people."

"Let's see . . . Dean told Rodrick, he told you, and now you're telling me. _I _don't plan on repeating this to anyone. I don't even know why you told me."

"_Because_, B. I don't know exactly what happened when he was kidnapped for sure. All I know is that he _was _starved for that week and he still goes to therapy because of it. I'm not so sure he's mentally stable enough to support you."

"That really sucks, Megan, it does. I feel really bad for him but I'm not going to stop liking him for something that's not even his fault. Anyway, it's been three years and I think he can handle a relationship. Why would you even think this would change my mind?"

"Whatever, now you know."

"This changes absolutely nothing between him and I. The only thing that's different is now I know he's way stronger than I thought he was."

"Don't you wonder what happened to him over that week?" The first bell rings.

"Doesn't matter," says Bree. "Still wouldn't change anything. I've got to get class."

"Alright. See you in Trig."

During study hall, Sloane isn't sure where she should sit. Normally, she and Chase sit at a round table together, but they haven't even talked since he left the art class yesterday. Chase is already in his regular spot, so Sloane just decides to go over there too. She sits across from him instead of next to him. He looks up from his work at her once she does. He looks back down after just a couple seconds.

"Chase."

He looks back up. "_Sloane_."

She doesn't know how to answer. She thinks to herself, _isn't this the part where he apologizes to me?_

"I think you owe me an apology," _Chase_ says, completely shocking Sloane.

Sloane raises an eyebrow. "_I _owe _you_ an apology?"

"That's what I said," Chase nods.

"I don't think so," Sloane scoffs, sitting back in her chair. "You need a serious reality check."

"Uh, _I _don't think so," he folds his hands on the top of the table. "You were flirting with that guy at the class yesterday, and you snapped at me for no apparent reason."

Sloane's mouth drops open a little. "I was _not _flirting with Logan and I did have a reason for snapping at you."

"I _saw_ you smile at him," Chase says in a low tone.

"So?!" Sloane leans forward again.

"Oh, come on, babe, you never smile at anyone. You're not really a people-person," Chase says annoyed.

Sloane breathes out and looks away from him for a moment. "Chase, I had a perfectly good reason for snapping at you."

Principle Perry calls over to them, "Hey, Catwoman, keep it down." Sloane happens to be wearing all black today, including a black and white cat shirt from forever 21.

Sloane takes a moment from her conversation to reply to her. "You're calling _me _Catwoman, seriously?" Perry points a finger at her in return.

"What was your reason, then?" Chase gets her attention back.

"I brought you to that class so you could see something that I like to do. I wanted to share it with you. But the entire time you were just complaining and insulting it. I got offended and fed up. I _love _art, and you were just totally insolent about how you didn't like it."

Chase presses his lips together, taking in what Sloane had just told him. "I'm sorry, you're right."

Sloane sighs, fiddling with her pencil.

"Do you forgive me?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm not still mad."

"Please don't be. For real, I shouldn't have acted how I did. You put up with a lot of the things I like to do, and I should've been a lot more considerate."

"Yeah I do, and yeah you should have."

"Sloane?"

"I don't know, Chase. I'm still mad. I need some space," Sloane stands and grabs her backpack.

"What? Where are you going?"

"I'm going to get a pass so I can go to the library. I have to write an essay for English anyway."

"I'll come and help you."

"No, Chase. Just . . . stay here."

Chase sighs now, and lets her go. Sloane gets a pass from Perry and heads down to the library.

After about twenty minutes of work, she hears some commotion behind her. She turns her neck to see Trent and a couple of his buddies. An anxious wave hits Sloane, but she tries to ignore it and get back to work. _What's he going to do with a teacher here?_

"Just sign in and get to work," the librarian says quietly, but Sloane is close enough to hear.

Before she knows it, Trent is sliding into the seat to her left, and Darren, one of his friends, slides in at her right. Sloane doesn't look or say anything, just continues typing and she _tries _to not look shaken. Her mind can't help but start replaying the scene at her sixteenth birthday party.

"Hey, Sloane," Trent says in her ear, but doesn't bother to whisper.

"Trent," the librarian says. "Be quiet and let her do her work."

Sloane is thankful, but still feels like there's something wrong. She notices Trent's second friend is nowhere to be seen. The fire alarm starts ringing. It's _probably_ just drill. "Ugh," Sloane says aloud and clicks the save button before standing to leave.

"Come on kids," the librarian says, heading out the door, even though she's supposed to go out after the students. Sloane is in front of the boys with her arms crossed as she leaves the room. When it's time to turn the corner to the exit, Trent's other friend, Brad, bumps right into her. As if he was _waiting_ for her.

Brad grabs her in a hug kind of way, but way tighter and forcive.

"Get off of me," Sloane struggles in his grasp, but it's hard the way he's gripping her. No one is even paying attention to them because the hallway is _so_ crowded. Right as she's about to get away from him, Darren is now grabbing her and forcing her into the boys' bathroom, which is right on the corner. Before anyone can even pay an ounce of attention to what's happening, she's already in the bathroom with Brad, Darren and Trent. "Let _go_," Sloane pulls away from Darren and finally realizes where she is. "Ew, let me out of here!" She shouts.

Trent laughs and shakes his head, "Don't be like that. Brad pulled the alarm for you!"

Sloane silently gasps, piecing everything together in her head.

Sloane crosses her arms over her chest, trying to appear completely self-content. "You guys are fricking twisted. Move out of the way, now."

"Who's going to make us?" Trent walks forward and pushes her hard. Her back slams against what she's pretty sure is a urinal, causing her a great deal of pain. She closes her eyes and winces, immediately leaning over and putting her hands on her knees. _What are they going to do to me?!_ Sloane starts freaking.

Sloane looks up when she hears one of the stall doors whip open and slam against another.

"Hey!" She hears Adam's voice over the loud fire alarm, which sounds more like a chorus of angels right now.

"Adam!" Sloane says, pulling a smile of relief.

He doesn't reply to Sloane before grabbing Trent's shirt and slamming him against the bathroom mirror above the sink. It breaks, but that doesn't stop Adam. Darren and Brad try pulling him off of Trent, but Adam is ten times stronger than them. "You leave my Plants vs Zombies buddy alone!" Adam shouts, now letting go of Trent and letting him fall down against the stalls. He grabs Darren and throws him down onto the ground, practically on top of Trent. He then gives Brad a good punch on the side of the face, and then pushes him against the wall before grabbing Sloane's forearm and pulling her towards the door. Adam puts his arm over her shoulders protectively before shutting the door on the three jerks. Adam pulls the door handle right off after closing it so they can't get out.

"Thank you, Adam," Sloane grabs him into hug. That stupid fire alarm is deafening now that they're in the hall, but she's so grateful right now she doesn't care. "You saved me in there!"

"You're welcome," Adam hugs her back quickly, "Let's get outside before the teachers notice we're not out there."

Sloane nods and they hurry out the exit together. Everyone is already yards away from the building, but the teachers just think Adam and Sloane were behind. "Come on, you two," Perry urges them over. "Who's left?" she turns to the vice principle.

"Just those 3 boys."

Sloane and Adam exchange a look with each other. He puts his arm over her shoulders again and whispers in her ear, "You ok?"

Sloane looks up at him and nods. She whispers, "Please don't tell Chase."

Adam doesn't do anything but just look down at her, an unsure look on his face.

"Please don't. Let's not tell anyone, you might get in trouble."

Adam nods, "Okay."

By the time the firemen pointlessly show up and search the whole school, an hour has passed. Perry surprisingly decides to just let school out early, because everyone already missed lunch and part of sixth period. Sloane kind of wishes she didn't have to walk home today though, her back is aching horribly. After the five of them go to their fifth period rooms to retrieve their stuff, they meet back up in the front of the school to walk home. Sloane decided on taking a backpack instead of a regular bag to school today, and gosh is she regretting it. It's making her back hurt even more.

"Sloane? Are you okay?" Bree immediately notices how Sloane's walking. They're walking in front of the boys, as they do most of the time.

Sloane looks at Bree, not sure what to say.

"Let me carry your backpack for you, Sloane." Adam says, catching on.

Sloane doesn't hesitate before taking it off and handing it to him. Adam puts it on his front side, over his chest. "Wow, this is heavy," he says putting emphasis on each word with a big wink at Sloane.

Leo laughs and shakes his head.

"Thanks," Sloane says and turns back around.

"Babe?" Chase says urgently.

Sloane turns again, annoyed he's calling her that when they're kinda-sorta in a fight. Bree turns now too. "What?" Sloane says.

"No, turn back around," Chase grabs her almost bare left shoulder. The tank top Sloane's wearing is a razor back. After a moment, he says, "You've got a huge bruise on your back. What in the hell is that from?" He sounds a _bit_ mad.

"There is?" Sloane tries looking over her shoulder at her back, but she can just barely see part of it. "How big is it?!"

"Like, the size of my hand."

"Oh my gosh," Leo says. "What happened?!"

Bree steps closer to Chase so she can see Sloane's back. "_Sloane_," her tone is dripping with concern. Sloane can hear the frown in her voice.

"Tell me what happened, Sloane. Now," Chase says, getting angrier with every word.

"Just pipe down," Sloane says, pulling away from Chase's hand and turning to face everyone. Well, she only really faces Adam.

"_Adam_?" Chase says between his teeth, confident Sloane isn't going to come clean.

He doesn't break his eye contact with Sloane. "Trent, Darren and Brad . . . they cornered her in the bathroom. They're the ones that pulled the alarm. I was in one the stalls when it happened."

Sloane watches Chase to see his reaction. His jaw clenches, "Did you take _care_ of those assholes?"

"Of course I did," Adam says in an 'isn't it obvious' tone.

Chase exhales, "Good," he's clearly furious. He reaches for Sloane to give her a hug, but Sloane moves away.

"I'm fine," she says a bit harshly. She rubs her chin against her shoulder, where Chase's hand just was, as if she's wiping away his touch. "I didn't even want you to know."

"Sloane—" Chase starts, trying to calm his tone of voice.

"Please," Sloane says—her voice cracking. "I really just want everyone to drop it." It's obvious she's trying not to cry. She turns quickly, "Let's just go home," she says over her shoulder.

Notes: Hope you liked this chapter :) Be sure to review!


	14. Chapter 14

Thursday near the end of lunch, Bree asks whose house they're hanging out at this weekend.

"None of ours," Megan smirks. "Mike Anderson is having a party."

"Are you serious?" Bree asks, honestly not even feeling like going to a party any time soon.

"You know who Mike is?" Dean questions.

"Yup," Bree says unenthusiastically. Mike is yet another bad boy that goes to Mission Creek, just not in their direct group. He's known for throwing the sickest parties, that is, until the police come and shut them down.

"Ever been to one of his parties?" asks Kendra.

"Nah," Bree answers with a shrug.

"It's gonna be fun," Justin nudges her and smiles.

Bree forces a smile back at him and then looks away quickly. Truthfully, she hasn't been able to get the 'kidnapping' thing out of her head. Every time she looks at him, she gets reminded. She's curious to know more about the whole thing, even though she knows she should just act like she has no idea.

The bell rings, indicating sixth period is starting soon. Bree glances over to her old table, noticing Sloane and Chase aren't sitting next to each other. Leo is in between them. And of course _Kitana_ is on the opposite side of Sloane. Bree rolls her eyes and stands, getting ready for sixth period.

Justin stands up quickly and gets in line with her. "Why are you in such a hurry?" He tosses his bagged lunch in the trash on the way out.

"If you wait too long the hallways get super crowded because everyone _else_ waits." Bree tugs on the strap of her backpack.

"Yeah, you're right . . . so how come you're not excited to go to Mike's party?"

"I don't know. The last time I went to a party that wasn't my own I got _kind _of . . . wasted."

Justin laughs.

"It was my first time drinking!" Bree laughs with him. "Believe it or not, I used to be a goody two shoes."

"Uh, yeah. I can believe it," Justin's still smiling.

"Hey," Bree shoves him playfully.

"Come on, B. I know who you are. I knew of you before you joined the group."

"Seriously? You actually noticed me back then?"

"I notice a lot of things," Justin smirks at her.

Bree stops next to the classroom door she's about to enter. "Have you noticed I really like you?" She doesn't look him in the eyes until she's done speaking.

Justin's smiling big. He leans against the wall behind Bree, putting one hand next to her head. "Want to go to Mike's party together? I'll make sure you don't get 'wasted.'" He winks as Bree looks up at him, just inches away. Bree nods, unable to find something to say. The late bell rings. "Oops," he takes his hand off the wall, "See you later, pretty girl," he pecks her on the cheek quickly and walks away down the hall.

Bree bites her lip, trying not to squeal as butterflies go crazy in her stomach. Caitlin walks by her and glares a little before heading into the room. Bree stops smiling immediately and glares back at her. Caitlin walks into the room, Bree smiling to herself again once she's gone. She finally strolls into sixth period, and Mrs. Jackson doesn't even notice she's late.

After sitting down at her desk, Bree secretively pulls out her phone. She finds herself in a pause. She wonders, _Sloane or Megan? _She decides to type in Megan's name for recipient and writes a text.

**Bree: **MEGAN! Justin just called me pretty girl and kissed me on the cheek! Were going to the party together :)))))

Bree quickly sends it and makes sure her phone is on silent so it doesn't go off during class. She doesn't need freaking Caitlin of all people laughing at her. Ever since she became friends with Megan—Sloane really, Caitlin has been nothing but bratty to her.

Bree receives a text.

**Megan: **Ack i hate pet names. at least he didnt call u princess

Bree sighs with irritation and deletes the text immediately. She obviously chose the wrong person to tell.

Friday night, Bree is ready to leave for Mike Anderson's party. Sloane, Adam and Tasha are watching a movie in the living room, and Leo and Chase are throwing a nerf ball around. Mr. Davenport is of course working down in the lab. "Alright, everyone, I'm heading out." She got Mr. Davenport and Tasha's permission earlier.

"Where are you going?" Sloane asks.

"To a party." She looks at Tasha, "With adult supervision and no alcohol," she smiles and tries not to laugh. She can't believe Tasha and Davenport actually believe that.

"Can I come?" Sloane stands eagerly.

"Seriously?"

Sloane nods, "I want to get out of this house," she says quietly.

"Okay, I guess you can come." She lowers her voice now, "Justin is driving us. He's right outside."

This causes Sloane to smile. Bree told her about what happened yesterday, and she was nothing but happy for her, unlike Megan.

Chase catches the ball from Leo but doesn't throw it back. "If Sloane's going, I'm going."

"No way," Bree shakes her head. Sloane mentally thanks her for it.

"Yes, way," Chase tilts his head gives her a smile. Sloane has barely looked at Chase since the art class on Tuesday. She's practically been ignoring him, and Chase needs to get their relationship back on track.

Leo walks over, "I wanna go."

"Me too," Adam stands up off the couch.

"No. Way. Only Sloane and I are going." Everyone in the group besides Megan _likes_ Sloane. She fits in with them.

"Bree," Tasha says after pausing the movie. "If they want to go, then you'd better take them unless you want to skip the whole thing."

"Tasha!" Bree whines.

"_Bree_."

"Fine," Bree exhales and leads the way out the door.

"Who is that?" Chase asks once they see Justin's car.

"Justin," Bree smiles. "He's driving us to the party."

"You're not super speeding us?"

"Nope," she heads for the front seat. "And have fun squeezing in the backseat, losers." She looks at Sloane, "Not you, Sloane."

She sits in the front and slams the door. "Sorry. My lame brothers wanted to come."

Justin looks at her, "Not a huge deal. I don't mind giving them a ride."

Leo and Adam file into the backseat, leaving Chase and Sloane.

Chase looks at Sloane with raised eyebrows, "I guess you're just going to have to sit on my lap."

Sloane tries not to look disgusted, "I guess so." Chase gets in, followed by Sloane.

"Hey Sloane," Justin looks at her in the review mirror. "And everyone."

Sloane forces a smile as everyone else says hi to him.

Chase reaches the seatbelt around both him and Sloane, earning a glare from her. "Safety first, babe," He defends himself with wide eyes. Once Sloane looks away and goes back to facing forward, Chase puts his arms around her waist. She leans back against him, trying to forget the whole past week and remember why she loves him.

Once they finally arrive at Mike Anderson's house, the place is packed. He seems to live in the middle of nowhere. He has no neighbors, and they can already hear the music from the car.

Justin parks, and everyone gets out. Chase grabs Sloane's hand, particularly annoying her. She holds his hand anyway, trying to sort everything out in her head. She notices Justin put his arm around Bree in front of them.

It seems that as soon as they walk in, Bree and Justin disappear. Adam, Chase, Leo and Sloane are left alone.

Bree and Justin find the rest of their group easily. Everyone is in what appears to be a game room, Dean and Kendra playing beer pong with some other randoms.

Megan looks up from the couch when she sees Justin and Bree walk in.

"Hey guys," she says. The music is a lot quieter in this room, so you don't have to scream to be heard.

"Hey." Justin sits on the arm of the couch, and pulls Bree over so that she's standing between his legs.

"Are you guys, like, together now?" Megan asks almost sounding pissed off.

Bree has yet to say something to her, especially now. She's always so negative and mad, and it's getting old. Justin doesn't answer her either.

Megan takes a sip of beer from the red cup in her hand. "Well?"

"_Why_ do you care?" Bree says with a look of annoyance on her face.

"I don't," Megan snaps and looks away.

Bree rolls her eyes and mumbles, "Whatever."

Rodrick walks in through the same door Bree and Justin walked through just moments ago. He's got something in his left hand.

"Is that a bong?" Bree says, stopping him in his tracks.

Rodrick shrugs, "Yeah. You want a hit?" He sits down heavily to the right of Megan.

"No," Bree looks repulsed.

Rodrick pulls a lighter from his back pocket and lights it up. He inhales from the top of the tube, and then passes it on to Megan. Once she's done, she holds it up for Justin to take.

Bree turns her head to look at him, just in time to see him look at Megan with wide eyes and slightly shaking his head no.

"What? Don't want to smoke in front of her 'cause she thinks it's gross?" Megan says, trying to start things up as usual.

"You usually smoke weed?" Bree stares at him, her nose scrunched up.

Justin looks at her like he knows he's disappointed her. Bree sighs. "It's not really bad for you, Babe. Practically harmless," Justin says.

"Then why's it illegal?!"

Justin chuckles, "Calm down. I'm not smoking any tonight—especially if you don't want me to."

Bree doesn't say anything, just looks over at Dean and Kendra. It looks like they're winning.

"Hey," Justin says quietly as he gives her a little shake.

Bree looks back at him with a straight face. She glances at his lips quickly, then back to his pretty brown eyes.

"I want this to work, really. I like you a lot."

Bree can't help but smile. She looks over at Megan and Rodrick for just a second to make sure they're not paying any attention. They're all caught up with the stupid weed. Bree feels Justin's hand on her cheek, guiding her head to face him again.

They stare into each other's eyes for just a second before Justin kisses her. When the kiss is over, they stare into each other's eyes again.

"Wanna be my girl, B?"

Bree smiles and nods, "Yes."

"_Oh _my _god_," Megan groans.

"What?" Bree asks irritated, smile immediately fading.

"You two. Are so gross."

"Fuck you, Megan," Justin snaps. Bree's heard him swear before, but it sounds weird now . . . unfamiliar. The past week, he's just been sweet and nice and polite around her. Regardless, Bree joins in, surprising herself when she gives Megan the middle finger.

Megan erupts in laughter, a laugh that Bree finds extremely aggravating right now. She's visibly high already.

"And we win!" Dean shouts, fists in the air. Bree turns to see Dean and Kendra victory hug.

"Up for a second game?" Justin asks.

Dean looks over at them with a smile, "Hell yeah!" Seeing Dean smile makes Bree smile. He actually seems happy for the first time since Bree met him.

"Want to play?" Justin smiles at Bree.

"Sure, but just one game," she smiles back.

Sloane and Chase are hanging out in the living room. They've barely said anything to each other, but it sure isn't quiet in the room. The music is deafeningly loud, and the living room is the main source of it. Leo and Adam are packed in with random strangers in the middle of the room, dancing. However, Sloane and Chase can't even see them anymore, so they could really be anywhere.

On the right side of the room, lies the staircase. Sloane notices Logan walking downstairs alone.

She nudges Chase, "It's Logan!" She yells into his ear so that he can actually hear her.

"Go say hi," Chase replies after he spots Logan. He doesn't really support Sloane and him being friends, but he figures it will make Sloane happy to know he's not pointlessly jealous.

"You sure?"

Chase smiles and nods, "I'll wait right here."

Sloane smiles back and heads off to catch Logan before she loses him in the crowd. She squeezes threw the dancing people and grabs his shoulder right before he's about to enter another room.

He turns and looks confused once he sees her. "Sloane?"

"Hey," she yells and smiles. "You look like you're looking for someone."

"Yeah, my brother," he's looking past Sloane. He nods his head, "You brought your friend."

"He's . . . he's actually my boyfriend."

Logan raises his eyebrows for a nanosecond, "Oh, cool. Want to come up to my room for a second? I can barely hear you down here."

"Your room?"

"I live here. Go grab your fr—boyfriend."

Sloane shakes her head, a bit in shock, "Yeah. Okay. Be right back." She turns to squeeze back through the crowd, but stops. "_Actually_," she steps up on the stairs so Chase will be able to see her. She motions to Chase once he sees her to come over.

It takes about thirty seconds for Chase to squeeze through the people dancing. "What's going on?" He asks once he reaches Logan and Sloane.

Sloane is about to explain, but Logan starts talking first, "We should all go hangout in my room," he uses his thumb to point behind himself, "It's so loud down here."

Sloane can tell that Chase is surprised that he lives here too, but doesn't bother asking about it in the loudness. He nods, "Sure."

They head up the stairs quickly, and Logan squeezes ahead of Sloane once they get to the top so he can lead the way to his room.

He walks into the second room down on the left. "Are you kidding me?" He says. Sloane and Chase follow in behind him, now seeing that there is a guy and girl making out on his bed. "Get out of here!" He shouts, shooing them off his bed and out of the room. He slams the door after them, and then turns around to Chase and Sloane. He sighs and forces a smile. "Well. Make yourselves comfortable."

Sloane sits down on the chest by the end of Logan's bed, which is covered in random stickers. Behind her, Chase sits down, but on Logan's twin size bed. Logan pulls out his chair from his desk and rolls it over closer to them. He sits and props his feet up on the empty space next to Sloane on the chest. He's wearing slightly dirty black chucks on his feet. Sloane notices a dry drop of blue paint on the outsole of the left shoe.

"So yeah, this is my room. Mike, my older brother, is always throwing these parties, which usually end in the cops showing up."

Sloane is looking around his room. There are no posters, but he has a huge mural and a collage of pictures of him and his friends above his dresser. All the walls besides the mural wall are white. On the far wall, the mural is painted. Logan painted the edges of the wall to look like the whole thing just cracked off, and the city lies beyond that. It's beautiful.

She glances over at his desk, seeing stacks of CDs, papers, a sketchpad, a block of wood and a small closed container of red paint. No textbooks or school supplies.

"I can't believe he's your brother," Chase says. "How come I've never seen you in school?"

Sloane looks over at the collage above his dresser now. She squints, and recognizes the girl he said goodbye to during the art class. She's in more than one actually. In the first, he's holding a strand of her brown hair underneath his nose like a mustache. In the second, they're both making silly faces and they look a couple years younger. And in the last one, at least that Sloane can see, the girl and another guy Sloane thinks she recognizes from art are holding Logan up in their arms, all three of them laughing. In the rest, Sloane doesn't recognize anyone besides Logan.

On the dresser itself, Sloane sees a bunch of wood carved characters and objects. There's a very detailed tree, a high top converse, an angry bird, an electric guitar, and more. It's kind of messy, but interesting. Less than half of them are painted.

"Oh, I'm homeschooled," Sloane hears Logan say, this part actually pulling her eyes away from the walls.

"That's awesome," Sloane says. "I'd love to be homeschooled."

"I get that a lot," Logan says chuckling. He looks over at Chase, "What's your name by the way?"

"Chase."

"Where's your mom, Logan?" Sloane asks.

"She's two hours away doing an art show. So as usual, that means party time for Mike."

"She must find out about the parties," Sloane says matter-of-factly.

"Oh, she knows."

"Why doesn't she do something about it? Like, I don't know, stay home?" Chase says. Sloane looks at him for saying that in such a rude way.

"Um, because she has to sell her paintings," Logan says as if it's obvious.

"Anyway," Sloane says. "I love this mural, Logan. It's so cool."

"Thanks."

"Yeah, did you paint that?" asks Chase. Sloane rolls her eyes at the stupid question, although they can't see her. They're all looking over at the mural.

Logan chuckles again, "Yeah. Art is kind of what I do." There's still a drop of rudeness in his voice, and Sloane doesn't blame him.

"It's really good," Chase ignores it. "You're really talented."

"Thanks, man. It took me two weeks to do that."

"That's pretty quick," says Sloane.

"Yeah, well, I don't have to waste three extra hours at a public school."

"Maybe some people _like_ school," Chase says, irritation creeping up in his voice.

"That has actually only been up about a month," Logan continues. "It was my fifth time painting that wall."

Sloane shakes her head, "That is so amazing," she looks back over at Logan. "What was it before this?"

"First, well hold on, the first one was so lame. I did a jungle. It's really unoriginal and basic, I know," he laughs, "But it was my first, so yeah. The second time, it was this black hole kind of thing, only it wasn't really a black hole, 'cause I used a bunch of other colors too."

"Technically," Chase interrupts him, "black holes have no color. If you looked in a black hole, you would see a distorted image of whatever is on the other side of it."

"Nevertheless," Logan is looking at Chase weirdly now, "It was awesome."

"And what was the third?" Sloane asks interested.

"When I painted the third, I was kind of obsessed with Salvador Dali. He painted _The Persistence of Memory_, which you'd probably recognize if you saw it."

"I know what you're talking about," Chase says. "It's the one with the melting clocks."

Chase knowing off the top of his head when she doesn't pisses her off. Art is _her_ thing. He doesn't even like art.

"Yeah, that's it. I was inspired by all of his warped fantasy world paintings at the time, so I painted this fantasy world with curved trees and square clouds. It was weird."

"Sounds cool to me," Sloane says smiling. Chase is trying not to get mad, but she just _can't _stop flattering him. "The fourth?"

"I did this amusement park thing. I had a huge red rollercoaster in it up close and other random rides behind it. My mom, Mike and I had gone to Six Flags just before it, so I of course had to go paint something from it."

"Awesome. Do you take pictures before you paint over the old murals?"

"No, I don't."

"Why not?"

"Well I cover the old pictures for a reason, so I leave it behind when I repaint."

"Ok_ay_," says Chase, clearly not grasping the point. "Then aren't you painting it for nothing?"

"_No_. I have fun painting the murals and it gets the emotion I'm feeling when I paint it out. That's not for nothing."

"Right," Chase says, almost scoffing.

"Logan, mind showing me where your bathroom is? I have to go," Sloane says.

"Sure," Logan answers and stands. He walks behind Sloane to the door but just points to the bathroom. "Just warning you, there's probably some puking teenager in there."

"Gotcha," Sloane nods and heads down the hall. She knocks on the door twice, nice and loud. There's no answer, so she opens the door. Sloane thinks, _are you kidding me? _It's the couple that was in Logan's room, of course making out again. This time, they have the decency to stop and look at who walked in, unlike before. Sloane stares at them for a moment as they stare back. "Get out," Sloane says rudely and looks at them incredulously. They just look at her. "Do you need me to lay out a fricking red carpet for you to walk out on? Leave." They finally walk out without saying anything.

Sloane closes the door behind them and locks it. She goes to bathroom, washes her hands, and then inspects her reflection in the mirror. She runs her fingers through her hair, trying to detangle it a bit. Then, she carefully runs her fingers underneath her eyes to clear the fallout from her makeup. After giving herself one final look over, she reaches for the doorknob, and opens the door.

Standing before her, is Trevor. Three years older and scruff on his face. Somehow, his eyes look different then Sloane remembers them being three years ago. They look dark now, and cruel. She blinks, hoping that he's just a hallucination and will disappear when she reopens them. But it doesn't work. Trevor's still there, tall and frightening.

"Hey, baby. Long time no see," he says, sending shivers down Sloane's spine.

Notes: Not exactly sure why, but I'm pretty proud of this chapter. Sorry I haven't posted in a couple weeks, but I'm wrapping this story up real soon. I hope you enjoyed this extra long chapter :) Let me know what you think about it. PS, if you don't remember who Trevor is, or for some reason you read this before reading Saving Sloane, he's a boy that was about 20 when Sloane stayed with him for about a year when she was 14/15. When Sloane left his apartment, it didn't end well. They were drinking, and he basically tried to have sex with her. She hit him over the head with a beer bottle so hard he passed out. She ran away and hasn't seen him until . . . now.


	15. Chapter 15

Sloane is in a shock for a few seconds because of seeing Trevor. She snaps out of it, trying to push past him. He blocks her from getting out, forcing her back inside and shutting the door behind him. Sloane's heart beat quickens as she watches him lock the door.

Trevor locks eyes with Sloane. "Don't worry. I'm not mad about what happened when you left, Sloane." He talks slowly and quietly.

"How did you find me?" Sloane demands assertively.

"You know, after you left," Trevor says, ignoring Sloane's question. He pulls himself up so he's sitting on the edge of the sink and he has his feet on the edge of the tub. He continues, "I went to the hospital because I couldn't stop puking. I had a concussion and couldn't go to work for a week." Sloane notices something sticking out of Trevor's back pocket. It looks like a knife.

Sloane looks away from him when he looks at her again. She remembers his job at the gas station. He used to work three in the afternoon to midnight everyday besides Wednesdays. On his off days, he and Sloane would go to one of his friends' houses, the movies, or just find something to do outside of the apartment. The only one of Trevor's friends that was sane was Madison. She was eighteen, and the only one who knew all along that Sloane was only fourteen. She was the only person other than Trevor that she trusted back then.

"Almost lost my job, actually," Trevor continues, acting entirely casual. "But that doesn't matter. I haven't worked there for the past year. I got a better job, baby. I've got more money in my pocket now. For us." Trevor smiles and gets down from the sink, inching closer to Sloane.

"Wheredoyouworknow?" Sloane asks, her words strung together so that he doesn't come any closer. She remains calm, trying to act like she's not scared of him.

He stops. "I'm working at Walmart, now. Right here in town. I got a new apartment," he smiles again. "It's so much nicer than our old one." He takes another step towards Sloane, who already has her back pushed up against the bathroom window with nowhere left to go.

"Trevor. How long have you been in Mission Creek?" Sloane tries to keep her voice from wavering.

"A couple months," he keeps slowly getting closer, "ever since I found you again."

"You were looking for me," Sloane says, trying to force a smile. If Trevor thinks she's perfectly content and happy, he might not go crazy. She crosses her arms, holding onto her elbows.

"Yeah, it took me a while though. But I found about that inventor guy you're living with. He's got four kids and a wife. It's down on—what is it? I know, 34 Maple street, here in Mission Creek."

That's their address. In Sloane's mind, everything becomes totally clear. _Trevor's been stalking her._

Trevor slides his hand toward the back pocket of his jeans, where the possibly-a-knife is. He doesn't look at Sloane when he says, "I know you've been cheating on me, Sloane."

Sloane presses her lips together, keeping her eyes on his right hand. "No, Trevor. I wouldn't—"

"Chase Davenport!" Trevor yells, startling Sloane. "You've been cheating on me with him for how long now? 4 . . . 5 months?!"

"Trevor," Sloane says, trying to calm him down. "We're—you and I—we're not together, Trevor. We haven't been. We never were."

"DON'T," he exhales and shuts his eyes, "Say that, Sloane," he reopens his eyes. He looks into Sloane's now-watery ones. He takes away the rest of the space that was in between the two of them. He finally moves his right hand away from his back pocket but slowly moves it to Sloane's face, cautiously trying to touch her cheek.

Sloane turns her neck away.

Trevor breathes down her neck.

"I just . . . I'm so happy to finally . . ." he keeps breathing heavily, "Talk to . . . and touch you again, Sloane. I—I can forgive you," he grabs Sloane's chin, forcing her to look at him, "For cheating on me. We can go back to how we used to be." He kind of laugh-sighs. "I just want to go back to how we used to be."

There's a pounding at the door. "Sloane?" It's Chase. "Are you okay, babe?"

Trevor's jaw tightens, fury in his eyes. He moves his head to look back at the door, hand reaching for the back pocket again.

Chase pounds some more. "Sloane!"

"That's him, isn't it? Your other boyfriend?" Trevor asks without looking away from the door.

A loud pound strikes the door again, a lot harder than before.

Trevor pulls something from his pocket, and it _is _a knife. He heads for the door, about to unlock it.

"Trevor!" Sloane grabs his left wrist, pulling him toward her so that he's no longer facing the door. "Ignore it, Trevor. I don't care about him," she bites back tears. "I'm so glad you found me, Trevor," a tear finally falls down her cheek. "I'm so glad you found me," she whispers.

The door flies open, revealing an angry Chase behind it—possibly Spike. He kicked the door open.

Sloane grips Trevor's wrists tighter, keeping him from turning around. She looks past Trevor quickly to see Chase, who looks confused behind him. He's not doing anything. He's just standing there. Sloane pulls Trevor into a hug, resting her chin on his boney shoulder. She mouths 'Trevor' with scared eyes to Chase. Chase remembers exactly who it is by the name.

When she's about to mouth to Chase that he also has a knife, she feels a sharp stab in her lower back, directly in her right kidney. Her mouth falls open. She freezes in complete tremor. All of a sudden, she can barely hear anything. She falls to the ground in slow motion as Trevor lets go of her.

"Why did you have to leave?!" Trevor screams, tears burning his eyes, but Sloane doesn't hear him. She can't hear much of anything. Her body is in shock. Her vision is blurry, so her eyes fall shut.

Chase grabs Trevor by back of his shirt, dragging him to the ground and seeing his face for the first time. It's the creepy guy from the movies, who was talking to Trent and sat right behind him. _He_ is Trevor!

Chase hears police sirens now, probably coming to finish the party off. Chase starts throwing multiple punches to Trevor's face, trying to make him unconscious. He grabs Trevor's head and slams it back down in one quick motion. Trevor's body goes still. Chase immediately grabs the knife out of his limp hand and tosses it away, anywhere. It lands in the far corner of the tiny bathroom. As his mind races, he turns to tend to Sloane now, using his X-ray vision to see where she was stabbed. He finds the wound in her right kidney. In this state, she could lose blood way too fast and die.

Chase leans over and picks her up using all of his strength and stumbles over Trevor, making his way out of the door. A lot of people have cleared out because of the police showing up, so it isn't hard to get through the halls anymore. He heads past Logan's open door without Logan even realizing it. He rushes downstairs, immediately seeing a cop forcing people out of the house.

"There's a guy upstairs in the bathroom!" He shouts at him, "He stabbed my girlfriend!" Chase is crying now too. "Go—go arrest him!"

The police officer grabs his walkie talkie.

"He's unconscious!" Chase quickly adds.

"I need backup upstairs," he walks past Chase, free hand now on his gun holster. "Alleged incident in the bathroom. A young girl has been stabbed."

Chase rushes out of the house, looking frantically for Bree. He finds Leo and Adam instead. "_Where_ is Bree?!"

"What happened!?" Leo says.

"Where's Bree?!" He shouts again.

"I saw her go this way," Adam shouts, leading the way, pushing through more people as they run. Leo falls in behind Chase. "Bree!" He shouts. Chase can see her once they're a few strides closer. She's with Justin.

"Bree," Chase says out of breath, "Sloane got stabbed in the kidney! You need to take her to the hospital, now! She could die if she doesn't get there!"

Chase glances at Justin, who is even more wide-eyed than he is himself.

"I can't carry her!" Bree says, horrified and worried.

"You have to!" Justin is no longer of Chase's concern.

Bree tries to take Sloane in her arms from Chase.

"Justin, look over there!" Adam says, grabbing Justin and forcing him to turn away.

"I—I can't do it. She's too heavy," Bree says once Chase completely lets go. She almost drops her before Chase stops it from happening, grabbing onto Sloane once again.

Justin turns back around frantically. "Come on, let's get to my car, quick!"

"Let me take her," says Adam. Chase carefully gives Sloane over to him. As they run to where Justin's car is parked, Chase looks down at his hands, which have spots of blood on them. Sloane's . . . Trevor's . . . probably both. They file into Justin's car as quick as possible, and they lay Sloane across Adam's, Chase's and Leo's laps in the backseat. They get moving and Justin treads out of there fast, maneuvering his way around cars and people, somehow doing it not unpleasantly.

"She's losing blood really fast," says Chase.

"I'm going as fast as I can," Justin says quickly.

Chase reluctantly pulls his polo shirt off over his head. He lifts the right side of Sloane's body up ever so slightly and slides his shirt underneath her on the wound. He glances at her pale, unconscious face rested in Adam's lap, supported by his forearm. His emotion starts kicking in again, but he tries not to let any more tears fall.

It takes just a bit more than five minutes to finally arrive at the hospital. On the way there, Chase heard Bree call Mr. Davenport and tell him what happened. After she hung up, she said he and Tasha were on their way to the hospital too. Justin pulls up in front of the emergency entrance, stepping on the breaks in an abrupt stop.

Adam gets out of the car, followed by Chase, who is holding her again. Adam slams the door behind Chase and they run into the emergency entrance as Justin keeps driving to find a parking spot.

Everyone in the waiting room looks over as soon as Adam and Chase come bursting through the doors. An Indian nurse comes over, "Is this the girl who was stabbed?" she asks with an accent. The police must have informed them.

Adam answers for Chase, "Yes."

"We are ready for her," she nods and gestures to a male nurse who brings a gurney over. He takes Sloane from Chase and lays her down on the stretcher. "You wait here," she nods at Chase again. A couple more nurses come over, them all pushing Sloane down the hall quickly and into one of the rooms.

_Thank God, _Chase thinks. Goosebumps prickle his skin, reminding him he's shirtless. Adam leads the way to a couple seats among about six other people scattered about in the waiting area. After a minute or so of Chase holding his head in his hands and wobbling his knee, Bree, Leo and Justin come in. They walk over to Chase and Adam, sliding in the seats beside them.

"Did they get her in right away?" Bree asks. Her eyes are puffy from crying. Chase is only able to nod.

"Here," Justin says to Chase, holding a black sweatshirt out to him, "I had this in my car." It says _Linkin Park_ across the chest in big white block letters.

Chase takes it without hesitating, "Thanks," he manages. He pulls the sweatshirt on over his head, his knee going right back to wobbling afterwards. Bree, who is now sitting to his left, puts her hand on his knee to try and stop it. He immediately does, and his eyes dart to hers. Her eyes well up again. She scoots a few inches closer and hugs him. Chase closes his eyes, fear and anxiety rising up inside him again.

Notes: OMG! This is craaaziness! I know this chapter ended in a cliff hanger, so the next one is coming shortly, I promise. Do you think Sloane's going to be okay, or did they get her to the hospital too late? Let me know what you're thinking! :)


	16. Chapter 16

Mr. Davenport shows up with Tasha just a few minutes after Bree, Leo, and Justin came in. Mr. Davenport looks furious, and Tasha looks sadder than anything else. They go to the front desk before even glancing over at the kids. Chase watches them nervously; well, they all do, except Justin. Justin doesn't even know who they are.

Davenport and Tasha maneuver around the many waiting chairs to reach the section that everyone else is sitting in. They sit down next to Leo and across from Adam, Chase Bree, and Justin.

"Alright, Bree," Mr. Davenport says, trying to keep calm. "You said you would explain what happened when we got here," he takes a breath, "so explain what happened!"

"Donald," Tasha grabs his arm, "There are people looking."

"I don't even know Mr.—Dad," Bree remembers Justin is right by her. "Ask Chase. He just came up to me all frantic saying Sloane got stabbed in the kidney."

Chase looks at her with an annoyed face.

"Chase. You can start off by telling us how you even got here," Mr. Davenport says.

Chase looks at Mr. Davenport then points past Bree to Justin. "Justin drove us here."

Bree grabs Justin's hand, "Yeah. And He's my boyfriend."

Adam, Chase and Leo aren't very surprised, so they don't say anything. Mr. Davenport, however, laughs, "You have no boyfriend Bree. But—Justin is it?—thanks for that. Now tell me what happened, Chase. Every detail."

"Well we—Sloane and I—were hanging out with Logan. He's from Art group. Sloane left to go to the bathroom and she'd been gone for like five minutes so I decided to go see if she was okay."

"And?"

"Trevor cornered her in there, I guess. I practically had to bust the door down."

"Trevor? Who is that? Does he go to your school? Is he the one who stabbed Sloane?"

Everyone looks at Chase, because no one knows who Trevor is.

"I don't know any Trevors," Bree shrugs and says after Chase keeps quiet.

"Me neither," says Leo.

"Don't look at me," Adam says.

"Do you?" Bree asks Justin. Justin shakes his head.

"Chase, who is Trevor and how do you know him?"

"I don't _know_ him, okay? Sloane has just told me about him before."

"Who is he?" Mr. Davenport repeats, more demanding this time.

Chase doesn't say anything.

Bree realizes he might not want to say it in front of Justin. She asks him with a smile, "Can you go get me a water from the vending machine over there?"

Justin seems a little caught off guard by Bree's question. "Uh, yeah. Be right back," he stands.

Chase watches him walk a few yards away. "Sloane . . . _stayed_ with Trevor a couple years back. When she was fourteen or so, for like, a year. It didn't end well when she left."

"How come she told you about that stuff and not me?!" Bree erupts.

"Bree, quiet down," Tasha reprimands.

"I don't even know how he found her . . ." Chase looks down, feeling like it's almost his fault for not stopping Trevor. However, Bree is starting to feel like it's _her_ fault. If she hadn't ran off with Justin has soon as she got there . . .

"Did you tell the police?" Mr. Davenport asks. Justin is just coming back now and handing Bree her bottle of water.

"Yeah, I told some cop that was ending the party before anyone else."

"Alright, good. Hopefully they got him."

"_He_ better hope they got him," Chase says, looking up now. "He doesn't want me finding him instead."

"Mr. and Mrs. Davenport?" A nurse by the main desk says. In the eerily quiet room, she seems loud. All eight of them, even Justin, look over when they hear the Davenport name.

"You kids stay here," Tasha says as she and Mr. Davenport stand.

"_No_," Chase says as if Tasha's last statement was absurd. He stands.

Davenport places a hand on Chase's shoulder. "There could be bad news, Chase. Are you sure you can handle it right now?"

"Well I'm going to _have_ to handle it, aren't I?"

And with that, Mr. Davenport takes his hand off of Chase and follows Tasha over to the main desk.

"It's . . . late," Bree says to Justin quietly. "You don't have to wait here."

"Are you sure? Sloane's your best friend," Justin replies.

"Yeah, and you barely know her," Bree says uncomfortably. "I kind of . . . don't take this the wrong way, but I just want to be with my family right now."

"No, I totally get it," Justin gives her hand a squeeze. "You're right, it's late. I'll head out if you want me to."

"Thank you, though. I can't even repay you for bringing us here."

"Yeah you can," Justin smiles a little and uses his left hand to guide her chin up. He gives her a quick peck. "Repaid."

Bree smiles back but looks over to Mr. Davenport, making sure he wasn't paying attention—and all is good. _Oh my god,_ she thinks, _my best friend is having a deathly experience, and I'm kissing my boyfriend. I'm a horrible person. _

Justin stands. "Wait," Bree says and also stands. "Give me a hug goodbye."

She hugs Justin tightly, and not because it feels amazing, because she really _does_ need a hug at the moment. They pull away, but Justin keeps his hands on her waist. "I'll leave my phone on," he kind of mumbles.

"Okay," Bree nods, feeling reassured. Justin kisses her on the cheek one more time before leaving.

Bree sits back down, but not in the same spot from before. She sits down next to Leo, and tries to not let herself fall apart. She can't stop seeing Sloane's bloody, seemingly lifeless body in the backseat, laid out over her brothers. Leo senses it and puts his arm around Bree, pulling her into him, only causing her _to _lose it. Reality finally hits her, causing her to break down, quiet sobs escaping from her.

In just a minute or so, Mr. Davenport, Tasha and Chase make their way back to Adam, Bree and Leo. Chase sits back down heavily next to Adam, worrying Bree even more already. But it can't be so bad, she figures, because he doesn't look any worse than he did before he went over there. He still looks pretty damn miserable however. He lifts his butt up to pull his phone from his back pocket, along with his headphones. He shoves the buds into his ears and starts playing music that Bree can faintly hear from across him. Bree glances at Adam now, who isn't crying, but looks almost as unhappy as Chase.

"Sloane is in surgery right now," Mr. Davenport says. "They don't really have much information on things at the moment, they're just . . . trying." Bree looks up at Mr. Davenport, thinking she heard his voice crack at the end. She was right—his eyes are welling up with tears, and Tasha is already silently crying. They both take seats next to each other to the right of Leo and Bree, who are still depressingly tangled up with one another. Bree closes her eyes as she leans her head against Leo's shoulder, trying everything to get that horrible image of Sloane out of her head. Eventually, she falls into a light sleep.

When Bree wakes up, the first thing she sees is Chase, still sitting across from her. She's no longer leaning against Leo. In fact, everyone else besides her and Chase are no longer in the room. She immediately notices. "Chase," she says. He looks away from the TV diagonally behind her to meet her eyes. He looks the same. It's almost as if she never fell asleep. "What are you doing?"

"Pretending to watch a muted TV while really I'm using every single part of my brain to not go on a crazy rampage and wreck every single thing in this room," he says, calm as can be.

Bree stretches and sits up straight. "Where is everyone?"

"They went to the cafeteria because they were 'hungry.' How can you eat at time like this, right?"

"Honestly," Bree agrees. "Do you know what time it is?"

Chase glances away to a clock bolted on the far wall behind Bree. "Almost 11:00."

She's been sleeping for just under an hour. She sighs, "Anything eventful happen while I was asleep?"

"The police caught Trevor . . . that's pretty much it. Not a word from any nurse or doctor," he shakes his head, clearly annoyed that there hasn't been any news on Sloane.

"The police caught Trevor," Bree repeats. "That's great news."

"Yeah, except Sloane's going to have to deal with seeing him again in court. I highly doubt she wants that."

"Maybe not," Bree says. "We don't know for sure that she'll have to go to court."

"I want her to get a restraining order on that guy."

"Yeah. Okay. But, not to burst your bubble or anything, that might not exactly keep him away."

"Well, if it doesn't, he can go straight back to prison for violating it."

Bree doesn't say anything after this, and after about five minutes of sitting around and doing nothing, the rest of their family make their way back to the waiting area. Soon enough, a nurse they haven't talked to before finds them.

"Are you the Davenport family?" She speaks softly with an extra-sweet tone and a smile.

"We are. Is there news on Sloane?" Tasha asks hopefully.

"Hi, I'm Nancy and yes, I have news for you regarding Sloane. As you know, she is currently in surgery. I just came from the operation room. Dr. Simmons was originally trying to stop the bleeding without removing her right kidney, but it just couldn't be done. Her right kidney was punctured too deep, so he has no choice but to remove it entirely. He's in the process of removing it now."

"So she's only going to have one kidney?" Mr. Davenport says. But all Chase is thinking is _yes; she's going to be okay. She's not dead. She's not going to die. _

"Yes, and I can tell you more about how this will affect her."

"Go on."

"Most people with a single, healthy kidney have few problems. A couple long term problems such as high blood pressure, and slight loss in kidney function won't happen at least for another 25 years or so, that is, if it happens. However, the loss in kidney function is usually very mild, and life span is normal.

She will still be able to participate in physical activity, exercise and play sports after she recovers, but we don't recommend any contact sports like boxing, soccer, martial arts, or wrestling. These can be more dangerous, but she'll be taking a risk with all physical activity if she's not being careful and protecting her one kidney from injury.

She will also need to have her kidney function checked once a year, but the doctor can just check that along with her blood pressure during her annual physical exam."

The nurse continues on, mostly talking to just Davenport and Tasha now, about how much time she needs to recover, how long she won't be able to do anything harder than walking up a flight of stairs, and so on. Adam, Bree and Chase are all looking at each other; all thinking the same thing: is Sloane still going to be able to go on missions and help save the world with the rest of them. The entirely honest answer to that would be probably not.

At one o'clock in the morning, they can finally go in and see Sloane. The entire surgery took about three hours, and another half an hour before Sloane woke up. They moved her to a regular room in the hospital and out of the ER.

Mr. Davenport leads the way into her room, Adam being the last one in. They walk in to see a pale, tired looking, but smiling Sloane. "Hey, guys," she says.

"How ya holding up, kiddo?" Mr. Davenport asks, forcing a smile back.

"Um, okay, I think."

Chase pushes his way over to her and takes the seat next to her bed, reaching for her hand. "We're so happy you're okay," he rubs his thumb against the back of her hand.

"Me too."

"I was seriously so worried," Bree walks over and stands next to Chase sitting in the chair. She laughs, "Crying my eyes out."

"We all were," Leo says.

"Fools," Sloane says with a laugh. "I'm offended. You all should've known I was strong enough to make it through all that."

"Yeah, we should've," says Adam.

"Did they tell you about not having—" Tasha starts, trying to be as sensitive as possible.

"Yeah," Sloane interrupts her. "I know it all . . . alright, look. I love you guys, but do you think I could get a moment alone here with Chase?"

"Yeah, of course," Mr. Davenport nods.

"Sorry, it's just. I have to see the police officer in a few minutes, and I really—need to talk to you alone," she looks at Chase for a moment then back to everyone else. "And it's so late. You all should go home and get a good night's rest, because I'm not spending the next three days here alone, so yeah. You all better be ready to cause some hospital mischief."

Bree laughs. "I won't be mad, but it's only because you have one kidney," she points a finger at her. Sloane laughs too. Bree leans over carefully to give her a hug goodbye. "Can't wait to see you in the morning, Sloaney. Love you. And don't go getting stabbed again in my absence."

"Love you too, Breebie," Sloane smiles. "Bye, everyone," she says as they all leave the room besides Chase. They're left alone.

"Sloane?"

"Chase," she replies, immediately welling up with tears. "I don't know . . . what I'm going to do." She's already crying now. Chase can't believe how she held it together so well just a few seconds ago.

"Babe," Chase says comfortingly, squeezing her hand. "Everything's going to be okay, I promise."

"Chase, I—I can't freaking go on missions any more. I'm waste."

"What do you mean you're a waste? You're not a waste. Not ever."

"Me having bionics is a waste," Sloane states.

"Sloane, you might still be able to go on missions. We don't know yet."

"And what? Wear padding around my waist in case I get kicked in the only kidney I have left during a fight? It's too risky."

"Sloane, it's going to be okay, I promise. And if you can't go on missions anymore, so fricken what. You're still going to be the Sloane I love, the Sloane we all love. You can still paint and draw and play mortal kombat. You can still walk up the wall and make an entire bookshelf fall over by blowing on it. You're still you. Even if you can't go on missions."

Sloane has stopped crying now.

"If you're going to hate someone for it, don't hate yourself. Hate Trevor. I know I do."

"I do too. And I can't wait to throw his ass in jail."

"And when you do, I'll be right by your side."

"What about when I torture him? Will you read the history textbook aloud directly in his ears?"

He nods and laughs, "And no one's going to stop me."


End file.
